Director: Cameron Crowe
Year Released: 2015
Rating: 1.0
Wounded warrior/defense "contractor" Brian Gilchrest (Bradley Cooper) - working, in part, for wealthy mogul Carson Welch (Bill Murray), who wants to put a 'satellite' into space - journeys to Hawaii to negotiate with a tribal leader, reunite with an old girlfriend (Rachel McAdams) and, of course, fall in love with a spunky fighter pilot (Emma Stone). Crowe's script is curiously wonky and rushed through: the inserted bits about Hawaiian mysticism come across as corny instead of poetic and Crowe's tiresome penchant for wall-to-wall pop songs (as emotional triggers) is (still) irritating. I'm guessing Crowe's trying to connect the native Hawaiians' vested interest in keeping the land sacred with keeping the 'skies' sacred - and free from weaponized machinery that Murray's character is touting - but all that gets lost in the 'screwball' dash to nowhere (the final scene, with Cooper and Danielle Rose Russell's character, does play out beautifully, making more of an impact than the entirety of the unconvincing Cooper-Stone 'romance').
