Hail Caesar! [new Coens]

[Blinder Data]

marquis_de_sad nailed it for me. Amusing moments, but most of the jokes felt pretty flat and first-draft. There was too much going on; the

Spoiler alert

Communist

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group was ripe for more material, but there were too many inconsequential characters to focus on one interesting aspect. Obie was the stand-out performer, and I enjoyed Clooney's mugging.

Did anyone understand Christopher Lambert? You know a film has more stars than it knows what to do with when you find out afterwards via Wikipedia that it was

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Dolph Lundgren on the submarine

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. Did Fred Melamed speak at all?

Really fluffy stuff. Beginning to think I'm not much of a fan of these kind of Coen comedies; their unevenness and throwaway nature makes it difficult to love.

Most of the film is in the trailer.

6/10

[Dannyhood91]

I just saw this today. Josh Brolin was really good as the lead. One of the better films I've seen recently.

[Sam]

What's not to love?

Foxes. They shit everywhere and knock over bins.

[St_Eddie]

Foxes. They shit everywhere and knock over bins.

A valid point, well made.

[Glebe]

Saw it yesterday, and very much enjoyed it, for the most part. Beautifully made and wonderfully dry.

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The Channing Tatum musical number is a particular highlight, pure, unadulterated fun.

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Some very funny lines, although I can't remember anything off the top of my head. Granted, it's a little draggy in places but otherwise it's a wonderful mix of golden-age-of-Hollywood tribute and uneasy weirdness. Lot of fun film-within-a-film stuff going on, it seems to be about faith/loss or faith and the need to believe in something, even if that something is just making/going to the movies. I like the way reality and fantasy blends, particularly in the scene with

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the submarine which is very obviously a set, and Michael Gambon narrating Josh Brolin's movements like an old noir movie

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.

So yeah, a bit uneven, but a lot of great stuff.

[Shaky]

I enjoyed this too. Gone in a puff of smoke, ultimately, but none the worse for that. Pacing was a bit weird as others have mentioned but nothing disastrous. Brolin, Fiennes and the guy playing Obie were great.

Thought they missed a trick by not putting Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown in the same scene, though. Doesn't get more "Hollywood classic" than Highlander!

[Glebe]

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Dolph Lundgren on the submarine

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.

Fuck me, and I didn't cop Christopher Lambert either! Nice to see Clancy Brown, though.

[up_the_hampipe]

Saw this tonight and really enjoyed it. Much better than Deadpool anyway. I don't feel like many jokes fell flat at all, at least not going by the audience response at the screening I went to. It all seemed to be executed quite while. Minor criticisms were that it dragged after the submarine and the ending felt a bit mehhhh. But that's nothing really, I enjoyed it massively. I loved Hobey Doyle.

Also, I don't know if this has been asked already but was that Michael Cera on the cross? Sounded a lot like him, but he's not seen other than feet.

[BritishHobo]

I thought the exact same thing. If it's not him, the voice is uncanny. There was a similar moment with an off-screen voice-actor who felt really familiar - the assistant who comes to tell Hobi that he's been summoned to star in Lawrence's film, kept almost deliberately off-camera, and yet I spent their entire scene desperate to figure out who it was. Stayed and checked the credits after, but didn't see Cera's name, nor anyone else I'd recognise as the latter voice.

[gloria]

I really liked this.  Everyone in this film is so fucking huggably sweet. A total tonal shift after the wintry bleakness of Inside Llewyn Davies (which I also greatly enjoyed).

[gloria]

This film is for fans of classic Hollywood to force performative laughs of recognition. The did used to make grandiose Bible pictures! There did used to be commies in Hollywood! They did used to make campy musicals!

I disagree.  It's not about the fact they're doing pastiches of these golden age of Hollywood cliches, it's about how beautifully the Coens manage to pull them off. 

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

Saw it with Mrs Stockbroker tonight. Seemed more like a collection of loosely-linked skits. The sailors song&dance could have done with more lyrics. Scarlett was underused. Didn't like the voiceover, which was intermittent (last minute addition?) There was a bit when I wondered"Have they given up on the voiceover?" and it immediately came back.

Not great but not awful. Could have done with more of an overarching plot, with a madcap screwball climax involving everyone.

[Pit-Pat]

Yeah, the voiceover was definitely the part that worked least well for me. No idea why they thought it would be a good idea. Perhaps exposition/plot was cut to allow for more singing/dancing and they were concerned it was no longer clear enough.

[Glebe]

I disagree.  It's not about the fact they're doing pastiches of these golden age of Hollywood cliches, it's about how beautifully the Coens manage to pull them off.

Yeah, the sailor one is particularly good. Funnily enough, it actually made me think of Sam Raimi's Crimewave, which the Coens co-wrote with Raimi. I wonder if Raimi saw it and though, "Damn, I need to go back and do another weirdo period slapstick comedy again!"

[Steven]

Will have to see this a few more times but liked it, I thought it was less about narrative and more an examination of Hollywood and 'systems' in general.

[Icehaven]

I really enjoyed it, laughed plenty. Best scene for me was when he'd invited the priest, vicar, rabbi and imam in to check that the Biblical epic's script wasn't going to cause any religious offence, funniest thing I've seen in a film in ages.
Also I went with my Mum early afternoon on a weekday, there were only 2 other people there and they still managed to be irritating! God I hate the cinema.

[Steven]

Also I went with my Mum early afternoon on a weekday, there were only 2 other people there and they still managed to be irritating! God I hate the cinema.

The Coen brothers do tend to irritate, self-indulgently so.

[Skip Bittman]

I liked this a lot more than the trailers, very warm and silly -- sure, it's self-indulgent, but I'm willing to indulge the hell out of anyone putting such ridiculous studio politics on screen.

[Wet Blanket]

Also I went with my Mum early afternoon on a weekday, there were only 2 other people there and they still managed to be irritating! God I hate the cinema.

In my experience packed cinemas tend to be better behaved than nearly empty ones. There's probably some psychological study that proves why, but it's like the will of the majority to be silent and behave shames the usual troublemakers into conforming.

Also, arthouse audiences are invariably more annoying than multiplex ones.

[QDRPHNC]

I loved this. Anyone who wasn't falling about during the scene where Hobie was trying to say, "Would that it t'were so," might as well be an alien in my books. Inverted your expectations about who was smart, stupid, weak, strong, and made some interesting points about paying attention to your most authentic inner voice.

[Noodle Lizard]

I loved this. Anyone who wasn't falling about during the scene where Hobie was trying to say, "Would that it t'were so," might as well be an alien in my books.

I'm an alien, I reckon!  It was like that Keith Chegwin scene in Extras stretched out forever and with less variation.  I'd be interested to time how long it actually went on for, because it felt like at least five minutes of the same joke repeating itself over and over again.  The Coens are usually so good at judging comedy, sometimes to the point where it's gone before you notice it, but this was easily one of my least favourite setpieces of theirs.

[Steven]

I'm an alien, I reckon!  It was like that Keith Chegwin scene in Extras stretched out forever and with less variation.  I'd be interested to time how long it actually went on for, because it felt like at least five minutes of the same joke repeating itself over and over again.  The Coens are usually so good at judging comedy, sometimes to the point where it's gone before you notice it, but this was easily one of my least favourite setpieces of theirs.

That was a bit hammered-home, but part of the comedy was the fact the British director is trying desperately to act graciously when he's feeling anything but, and the actor's shit-heel-kicking Southern accent and manner trying to sound posh while badly delivering the lines.

[greenman]

Finally got around to watching this and actually found it more enjoyable than most previous Coens pure comedies, for once it did actually feel like the comic style of something like True Grit removed and riffed by itself rather than an unsuccessful attempt to make something more conventional. The difference I'd say is that this time around you have a straight main in Brolin's character running though it all giving the zaniness something more grounded to play off of.

It did seem a little scattershot in terms of what got screen time relative to what worked best for me,  Ehrenreich's Cowboy was charming enough although as mentioned above I think the scene with Fiennes is by the best with the latters politeness making the comedy, I could actually see that plot making up a good film by itself. Clooney was good  but I didn't really find the communists that funny playing on a pretty simple joke that there bitter and out of there depth rather than off of him that well. Keeping that plot more about stuff like the Priests/Rabbi's/etc  would I think have worked better, don't think the film toped that early scene. The Tilda Swinton sisters fell a bit flat for me and could have been cut out entirely whilst Johansson was surprisingly good and could have been used more.