'Aloha' Movie Review, Trailer Stars Bradley Cooper, Bill Murray - AARP Everyw... Movies for Grownups

Say ' Goodbye' to ' Aloha'

Cameron Crowe' s Hawaiian romance gets lost at sea

Rating: PG-13 Run Time: 1 hour 45 minutes Stars: Alec Baldwin, Bradley Cooper, John Krasinski, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, Emma Stone Director: Cameron Crowe You always want to give a filmmaker with the caliber of writer-director (, ) the benefit of the doubt. But somewhere around the middle of his romantic comedy Aloha— oh, I don't know, maybe around the time gets hold of a nuclear bomb — you finally have to pull your chips off the table and ask the dealer for a new deck. It's hard to know what anybody involved in this misbegotten mash-up was thinking, other than "Hey! The shooting location's in Hawaii!" (The state looks beautiful here, but that's a bit like saying was attractive in .) plays Brian Gilcrest (I keep wanting to call him ), a hotshot defense contractor who arrives in Hawaii to help grease the skids for his billionaire boss (Murray) as he tries to negotiate a delicate land deal with the locals. Neal Preston/Columbia Pictures Emma Stone, left, Bradley Cooper and Rachel McAdams star in director Cameron Crowe's romantic comedy 'Aloha.' Murray wants to build a pedestrian walkway to his new rocket plant, but the planned route would pave over a traditional burial ground. Yes, we're talking about a sidewalk here. It's the sort of thing your average homeowners association tackles as an afterthought at its quarterly meetings, but for some reason Murray's billions depend on this sidewalk being built right there, and Gilcrest is the only man on the planet qualified to pull it off. Anyway, Gilcrest's return to Hawaii is also an occasion to visit his old girlfriend, Tracy (), now the mother of two kids and the wife of a tall, handsome and unnervingly quiet Air Force pilot (John Krasinski). In their very first scene together, we're told that Tracy's 12-year-old daughter, Grace (), was born "about a year" after she and Gilcrest split up. Throughout the film, Grace and Gilcrest keep staring at each other curiously. And every 15 minutes or so, Tracy pulls Gilcrest aside and mutters a variation on "I've got to talk to you about something…" What, oh what could she want to tell him? If you haven't figured out the secret by 20 minutes into the film (and Gilcrest, of course, does not), may I interest you in some real estate downhill from the Kilauea volcano? While he's in , Gilcrest is assigned the company of a fresh-faced officer named Allison, played by (Emma, Margaret Keane called — she wants her eyes back). They start out all argument-y, so there's no way they could ever wind up together, right?

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Expert - Bill Newcott — Receive access to exclusive information, benefits and discounts As for Murray's nuke, rest assured Paradise is not lost, thanks largely to some scientific paper Gilcrest wrote several years earlier regarding projecting sound waves through space. So besides specializing in sidewalk negotiations, Gilcrest is one of the century's premier scientific minds. (Revealing of such details is less a "spoiler" than a "stupidity warning.") Murray is fun, as always, as the quirky billionaire, and entertains as a gruff Air Force general. When Gilcrest and Allison visit a remote outpost of Hawaiian nationalists — a group that questions the legitimacy of Hawaii's statehood — they meet up with Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele, playing himself. Kanahele is a controversial figure in Hawaii, and Crowe goes to such narrative lengths to escort us to his mountaintop home that you've got to figure he's the real reason Aloha ever got made. Sorry, Cameron, but that's not reason enough. Bill Newcott is a writer, editor and movie critic for AARP Media. Featured AARP Member Benefits See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures

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