MOVIE REVIEW - Aloha

The new Cameron Crowe written and directed romantic movie, Aloha has every too it needs to be really something special.  Sadly, it's not.

Look at this cast. Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, John Krasinsky, and Danny McBride. Plus, it was written by a wonderful writer and set in Hawaii. What could possibly go wrong?  Well being honest, there isn't really isn't anything totally wrong with this as much as there is simply not enough right with it.

This is the story of Brian (Cooper).  He is a former military man who made some huge self - destructive decisions in his career, and now he has to start all over again at the bottom.  So he is now in the employ of a private military contractor named Carson (Murray).  He is stationed back in Hawaii where he runs into an old girlfriend, Tracey (McAdams).   They have been broken up for about 12 years, and she now married with kids to Woody, (Krasinsky).   But the two of them reconnect to a degree.

Brian is being escorted on his new deploy by Allison, (Stone).  She is an Air Force fighter pilot who is strictly by the book.  She is also a dreamer and quietly lonely and has an instant attraction to Brian. So what this turns into is one man, two women, and the struggle it is for all of them.  Where will Brian end up?  With Tracy, or Allison.  Being fair, you know the answer almost immediately.

With all of these really good people this should be great, but it's not.  Sadly and stunningly this could have been filmed in a studio in Hollywood as they take almost no advantage of the amazing Hawaiian landscape.  Second, this script has a nice idea, but is so disjointed and fast moving you don't believe most of it.  It's simply too convenient.   Our three mains Cooper, Stone, and McAdams do their level best to make its sing, but it can only squeak.  The problem here is Cameron Crowe.

There are some nice flashes of goodness here.  Cooper is easy to watch, and is Hollywood's biggest leading man now. Stone is always great when she gets the right role.  I love her in most projects as she is versatile and fun. Her screen presence is awesome always and makes any picture better when the script is right.  She and Cooper save this from the scrap heap. McAdams is fine in the small role they wrote for her, and the rest of the supporting cast does what they can with the little they are given.

I think the allure here for this great cast was Crowe.  He has written some wonderful scripts, and I think most were thinking this had the chance to be another Jerry MacGuire.  It is not.  This is not a bad movie, and many will really enjoy this. Being honest I enjoyed a whole ot of this. But in the end you walk away thinking there was just something missing, and a wonderful opportunity may have just slipped away.

Aloha.  Not a swing and a miss, but a bloop single to left. Should have been an upper deck home run,.