Title – Aloha (2015)

Director – Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous)

Cast – Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Danny McBride, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski

Plot – Hardnosed contractor Brian Gilcrest (Cooper) finds himself back on his old stomping ground of Hawaii working for billionaire Carson Welch (Murray). Brian reconnects with old love Tracy (McAdams) on the island but finds himself drawn also to up and coming pilot Allison Ng (Stone), the girl assigned to watch over Carson as he goes about his work.

“In any of its many forms, I have found that nothing beats fun”

Review by Eddie on 9/11/2015

What a strange movie Aloha is. A film that is neither a proficient drama, a funny comedy or a romantic love story and it’s a film directed by well-respected and renowned filmmaker Cameron Crowe, the man responsible for Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire and Say Anything and many others making Aloha’s failings even more baffling.

Put simply, Aloha is a messy film, an unfocused one even. From the films unappealing opening through to its lacklustre building blocks, Crowe for perhaps the first time ever has produced a truly heartless, soulless affair that for reasons unknown is also a for no good reason at all, complicated and almost incoherently structured tale.

What could’ve been a simple and heart-warming tale of finding love, redemption and friendship on everyone’s favourite island of Hawaii instead becomes a strange mix of island lore, satellite wars and hula dancing lessons and Crowe seems to have become lost in his own self-worth with his no doubt personnel love letter to the American state. For a filmmaker so well adverse with making feel good titles it’s such a shame Aloha just never gels, right down to a miscast and struggling A list cast.

Much was made upon release about Aloha’s casting choices but not looking to ply into Hollywood politics the end result of it all is that Aloha wastes a normally likeable group of actors and actresses with unlikeable and non-relatable characters. Led by Bradley Cooper’s self-obsessed pilot turned contractor for hire Brian Gilcrest no one comes out of Aloha on top with Emma Stone’s part Asian (yes part Asian) Allison Ng the worst off while the underused Danny McBride and Bill Murray may as well of not shown up.

It seems as though there was material left on the cutting room floor in concerns to Aloha’s wasted cast and overly packed narrative but it will never be known if it would’ve been enough to save Aloha from its downright mediocre nature.

Redeemed somewhat by its winning island locales, a small amount of heartfelt scenes and an ending that belongs to a much better film, Aloha isn’t the years worst film by any stretch of the imagination but its most certainly one of the year’s most disappointing and it takes some type of effort to waste a cast like Crowe does here and the one time unflappable director has a lot of work ahead of him to get back to the perch he once sat on.

2 baby’s called Don out of 5