I'm glad this one was on HBO because if I paid for it at a theater I'd be really unhappy (and, once again, disappointed at a Coen Bros. film). I'm not saying that a film cannot have a variety of tones and multi-layered themes. But at the end of the day, it must know what it wants to be overall: a comedy, a message movie, a thriller, a historical film, etc.
Hail, Caesar is crammed full of A-list actors stuck in a failed concept of a movie. I can't say that the Coen Brothers are afraid to go for it, whatever "it" is. Sometimes their off-beat approach strikes gold as in Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, Fargo or O' Brother Where Art Thou. Then again, they have more than their fair share of black comedy (?) bombs such as Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading and The Lady Killers. Well, sorry to say, add this Hail, Caesar to the bomb list and hope their next project is another gem like No Country for Good Men or True Grit.
Hail, Caesar is crammed full of A-list actors stuck in a failed concept of a movie. I can't say that the Coen Brothers are afraid to go for it, whatever "it" is. Sometimes their off-beat approach strikes gold as in Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing, Fargo or O' Brother Where Art Thou. Then again, they have more than their fair share of black comedy (?) bombs such as Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading and The Lady Killers. Well, sorry to say, add this Hail, Caesar to the bomb list and hope their next project is another gem like No Country for Good Men or True Grit.