Aloha

This is a strange movie. It's slightly funny but not a comedy. A bit romantic, sentimental, and dramatic. Because the plot is a bit of a mess. The dialogue is OK...and then occasionally there is a brilliant line and you it's Cameron Crowe.

So why did I give it a 7? The cast. Just wonderful to watch. Emma Stone's eyes are luminous. Bradley Cooper baby blues can melt you. Rachel McAdams you can't not always love. John Krasinski was solid. Bill Murray and Danny McBride always inject smiles. Alec Baldwin owns every scene he is in.

Halfway through the movie I'm like "where is the story? What a waste of great actors/characters" But by the third act Crowe mostly pulled it together.

I also found this movie VERY topical. Bill Murray is Elon Musk.

Aloha has absolutely no idea what it wants to be. If I had to count, I'd say there are about 10 subplots in this movie which is about 9 too many for a romcom. Sure, it's based on real-life, but that's no excuse to make a terrible movie. It's a chore to watch this thing, it took me three separate sittings before I can make it to the end without falling asleep or dying of boredom. Its tone is probably the worst offender. Like I said, it has no idea what it wants to be, so it tries to be everything. A love story, a political statement, a bittersweet comedy, a tense drama-mystery about a guy trying to control space - it does not mesh well at all. I had forgotten Alec Baldwin was even in the movie at one point, and that was probably the most interesting storyline in the damn thing. It's frustrating because there is a good story in there! Somewhere! I think. It's hard to tell with all the surrounding sh*t.

The cast is the only good thing about this movie. It's just a shame watching them have to recite this terrible dialogue to one another. They even have chemistry at times which helps during the cringe-y moments, but convincing acting doesn't make a bad script good. It just makes a bad script... somewhat watchable. But don't watch it. It sucks.

The movie features an all star cast each having an amazing talent for expressing the emotions of their characters into fully 3 dimensional people: emotions, brokenness, past history, failures, etc. I actually expected this to be a "low brainer" movie. How wrong I was and so glad that I took the time to discover this movie is rare gem. .... OK some reviewers were / are expecting these actors to revive past roles that blew minds just to drag in an audience. Nah, that would be too simple! Instead Cameron Crowe utilized the known strengths of each of the actors in a truly romantic (comedy) using their individual skills to tell the story. (I will leave up for debate whether he (Crowe) was capitalizing on past performances) . Love the cast and the story. Only sort of negative would be to include more local Hawaii natives to flesh out their love of culture. That said the natives that do appear are delightful. Enjoy this movie with these thoughts in mind. As for me I must see it again soon!

Loveable actors playing mostly unbelievable characters in an unbelievable plot that hinges on a boy's video recording. Mixed soundtrack as confusing as rest of the movie. The elements were all there for a great film but writer/director Crow didn't know in which direction to take it.

I was excited when I saw the cast of this film only to find out that it had a pretty poor rating. A friend had even recommended it to me, but I questioned her judgment compared to what apparently 30k people have thought about it. But I finally decided to give it a go, and it was worth it. I honestly don't know why it has such a low rating. The film is definitely slower, but it's the feel of the movie. I thought it was interesting, romantic, and funny. It even made me laugh out loud a few times. I loved Emma's character but Bradley Cooper's character took a little warming up to. If you go into it with an open mind, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.