Hail, Caesar!

    This last spring I was lucky enough to sit in for a Q&A with Joel Coen. The Coen Brothers are one of my favorite directors and I reference them often in this blog. So when asked about his next project and Joel described a movie called Hail, Caesar! about George Clooney being abducted by a group of extras, I was thrilled. I finally saw Hail, Ceasar! last weekend on a Valentine's date with my Mom. I was not thrilled.

    So let's get this clear. The movie is not awful. It's not Battleship or some other Hasbro garbage. But is not a good movie for them and is one of my least favorites by them. I like the visuals, the jokes, and the acting. But there were some key story elements that did not happen. For example, there's a plot line that involves a dastardly act George Clooney's character did on his first Hollywood film. The act was revealed at the end of the movie in an offscreen conversation and written out quickly. Additionally a lot of the characters don't have purpose or a desire, other than create work for Josh Brolin's character Eddie Mannix.

                                                            Mannix is the protagonist of this twisty, seemingly meaningless comedy-drama. That description in itself shows how scattered the characters are. Huge stars like Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, and Scarlett Johansson pop in and out of the story with very little to do and loose ends that get tied up by a simple walk and talk with Eddie Mannix in the last five minutes.

The only actor who is given any other meaningful screen time is Alden Ehrenreich who gives a marvelous performance as country good ole boy Hobie Doyle. Hobie is a stud with horses but is brought into a adapted play directed by Ralph Fiennes' Lawrence Lawrence. The scene provides the only true moment of comedy of the whole film with an endearing Hobie and the artist Lawrence. 

  

     Now at the Q&A I learned about Hail, Caesar! before while it was shooting. This could be me only hearing what I wanted to hear but I could have sworn that Joel Coen said that Hail, Caesar! was going to be a musical.

     It fits with the current cut of the movie. There are large musical interludes with Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, and Alden Ehrenreich and music and old Hollywood is a big theme. Additionally the explanation of major off screen plot points through dialogue would make sense if these were originally supposed to be shown in a musical number. Channing Tatum's character is given a full length musical number and then has no dialogue until what seems to be the climactic scene. And this climactic scene has absolutely no context. 

     I think Hail, Caesar! was supposed to be in a musical and somewhere in the production that was cut. What was left was a hodge podge of actors, characters, and story lines tied together by Eddie Mannix and Roger Deakins.

Snowpiercer

Over the winter vacation, I was scrolling through Netflix and decided to watch Snowpiercer without any prior information to what the plot of it was or how it was received by critics and audiences. To say the least, I was pleasantly surprised to find a movie filled with gritty and captivating action sequences as well as an interesting plot and premise. Snowpiercer does a great job of keeping the story and action interesting and, as long as you don't take it to seriously, it is a lot of fun throughout the entire feature.

Snowpiercer takes place in a desolate future where the Earth has been frozen over due to a failed attempt to stop the effects of global warming. The surface is now completely uninhabitable and most of the world's population has been eradicated. The only surviving humans left on the planet now live on a train that is constantly moving and never stops under any circumstance. A man named Curtis (Chris Evans) lives in the back of the train with other survivors in harsh living conditions where they must work to survive. Meanwhile at the front sections of the train, wealthy aristocrats live lives of luxury and relaxation. Tired of the oppressive upper class, Curtis leads a revolt in order to take control of the train by fighting his way to the front and taking the engine room by force. 

It took me awhile to understand that the dialogue and circumstances of the movie were supposed to be over the top and ridiculous. That being said, it did take me a good twenty or so minutes into the film to actually start appreciating it for what it was. Once the plot and characters were established, the action started and thats when I really started enjoying it. Most of the characters are pretty one dimensional but there are moments that are very heartfelt and others that will make your stomach churn. The pacing is very good as the progression of the film is marked by the rebellion's advancement through different parts of the train. The ending was very unexpected and there wasn't a lot of clarity in where it was heading after the cliffhanger-esque sequence but I was able to look past it for all the fun I had while watching the entire movie. 

Since my first time watching, I have watched it again and it was great knowing what to expect and reliving all of the awesome fight scenes and emotionally gripping parts all over again. I highly recommend watching this movie if you enjoy science fiction and all of the ridiculousness that stems from the genre.