Hail Caesar: A Short Review

Hail Caesar is a Hollywood comedy of 2016 by the Coen Brothers. It has an amazing all star cast with some the most famous names in Hollywood. People like George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Scarlett Johanson Channing Tatum, Alden Ehrenreich and Ralph Fiennes make up the cast. Hail Caesar is a movie about the golden period in Hollywood.

[Tweet “It was released on the 5th of February 2016 and is rated 6.9 on @IMDB”]

The movie basically follows a fixer from Hollywood named Eddie Mannix in the 1950s. He basically cleans up and solves problems for all the big Hollywood stars. The movie is placed in the genre of mystery and comedy. The biggest problem with this movie is basically the expectations people had had since it was a Coen brothers’ movie and why not…

These are people who have won multiple Oscars and you cannot expect any less from them. What I will admit to is that it was a little lesser then what I or anyone else would expect out of them so it was probably not one of their master pieces but it was still a great movie.

So, I am going to go ahead and tell you exactly why I like and dislike the story in just a moment let me describe to you exactly what is going on in the movie. Like I mentioned earlier; Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is basically fixing all sorts of problems for prominent people in the Bollywood but things go a bit crazy when Braid Whitlock(George Clooney) is kidnapped for the ransom of a 100,000 dollars by the communists. This and many other petty problems are driving Eddie Mannix mad. This is all happening while Mannix is contemplating life and is thinking about a new career altogether.

The setting of the movie is commendable. Everything looks exactly how you would imagine it to look and it is beautiful. The sets, the costumes and characters are all don to perfection. I particularly enjoyed Scarlett Johannsons’ look who is playing DeeAnna Moran. She looks so different in real life without makeup just like many other celebrities without makeup.

Speaking of Scarlett Johannson, she literally seemed to have nothing to add to the story. Other actors including Channing Tatum seem to get very little screen time in the movie. I would say that the only thing good for Channing Tatum in this movie is the dance sequence besides which there was very little appearance by him. The Channing Tatum dance number takes place with him dressed in a sailors costume.

What I might be able to say about that number is that it would probably be enjoyed more by his female fans while other people may find it rather annoying and a drag for the movie. Brolin however kept the story going really well and acted superbly. The fact is however that with such a top-notch cast one would expect to see them a little more than they appeared. The movie was in a way too crowded and seemed to have no real plot.

[Tweet “The humour was enjoyable as it is with Coen brothers but the only thing it shows is a day with Eddie Mannix and very little story.”]

The thing with the movie which may disappoint a few is that there does not seem to be an apparent link between things and there is little time for any depth to be shown in the characters as merely a 48 hour window is shown through which you may be able to glare in another century but no into other people’s lives altogether. There seems to be no follow ups on a lot of scenes which may have been appreciated by the audience. The movie has a lot of under-tone humor and a lot of satire is involved. This is often not understood by a lot of the audience who want cheap slapstick humor.

Here is a little trivia for you people…. Although other people might be fake but there are legends that Eddie Mannix was actually real and he used to help stars keep their silverscreen reputation while he hid all their dirty secrets up. Nowadays things are different though. Media and social media grind movie stars for their most personal details but remember that was a different time.

All I believe is that the Coen brothers may have gotten way over their head in their movie as they tried to show too much in this 120 minute movie; although it is enjoyable but it could have been more so with a little more depth and fewer things going on. If you are into glamour and style and can stand a bit of suspense then you should definitely watch this movie.

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Did you read something different on today’s post? Well, it is because, this post is a Guest Post. I received email from someone abroad asking about being a guest post on this blog. I instantly said yes. I asked her to write about movie review (Review Film) and she did. I hope you enjoy today’s post.