Hail, Caesar!

If only the movie was exciting enough to merit that exclamation point.

Set in 1951, George Clooney stars as Baird Whitlock – the consummate Hollywood leading man working on a massive prestige film. For reasons to be revealed, the star is kidnapped and held for ransom. Like all of the problems the studio faces, it’s up to Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) to get to the bottom of it, take care of it, and make sure the press and the public never discover the truth.

Hail, Caesar! is boring.

Writers/directors Joel and Ethan Coen do a wonderful job recreating that magical bygone Hollywood atmosphere in a way that hard core movie history fans will appreciate, but they should have spent more time finding interesting stories to tell within the pretty window dressing.

Instead, we have a movie where all of the actors get to roll out funny accents. This helps prop up a series of pointless scenes, but it doesn’t make for a good movie.

Hail, Caesar! needs more intrigue, more twists, and more plot. Possibly, the movie is a character study about Mannix or some view of a slice of his crazy life as he hops from set to set and crisis to crisis, but viewers want something to follow and invest in.

Aside from a delightful and double entendre packed song and dance number from Channing Tatum, Hail, Caesar! drags from start to finish without the crackling energy a comedy needs to deliver to make us laugh.

Hail, Caesar! is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking.