Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a movie studio Hollywood fixer and it’s not an easy job. He is already dealing with movie stars who can’t stay out of trouble, keeping gossip columnists at bay and juggling the other day to day operations. However, on this particular day he has something new to deal with, his biggest movie star on the studio’s biggest movie has been kidnapped and being held for ransom.

“Hail, Caesar” takes place in the early 1950s and plays off to that earlier time in Hollywood. You’ll pick up on what I mean when you hear Scarlett Johansson‘s accent. You’ll find that the picture often takes these jokes over the top or beats a joke for too long. The saddest part to all this is how unfunny the movie is as a whole. At an advance screening that took place in Boynton Beach you could hear a few people laugh here and there, and again, only a few. More people probably walked out on the screening than you heard laughing.

The Coen Brothers currently have won four Oscars, so as a studio you let them make whatever they want. They always attract big name stars to their projects. George Clooney is one of the stars they got for this movie, but comedy has never been his strong suit and that’s evident once again. Tilda Swinton is the biggest standout in the cast to “Hail, Caesar” and Josh Brolin carries the movie well.

You have to go back to the 20th Century to find a comedy the Coen Brother’s have made that would fall under the category of good. “Hail, Caesar” does not break that streak. The movie’s run time is under two hours, but it feels much longer. The movie falls flat from the start and stays that way with the only occasional blip, but that does not make it worth seeing. It is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking.