Blade Runner 2049 is one of the most gorgeous films the Critic has ever viewed. Director Denis Villeneuve loves scale, and utilizes the enormity of structures in such a way that the viewer is often held in awe. The original Ridley Scott cyberpunk staple had its share of megacorp pyramids married to a dystopian, space trucker aesthetic--his other sci-fi classic Alien as well as The Empire Strikes Back also exist in the same dirty, lived-in universe--but Blade Runner is not as striking a film visually, nor is it as epic as 2049. Concessions must be made to the great advances in special effects and CGI that have happened in between Blade Runner and its sequel, but I'll be damned if 2049 isn't the better movie. Gosling's K/Joe has a great character arc that satisfies while still calling back to the thematic material of the original movie. Master creep and possible cult leader Jared Leto is also a compelling villain as the sociopath cyborg CEO of the Wallace Corporation, which manufactures bio-engineered humans called replicants. The relationship between Joe and Joi, a personalized AI, recalls the film Her favorably. My only real criticism is that 2049 is a long movie, and some of the action sequences could've been trimmed. Anyways, if you're in the mood for a damn good cyberpunk noir thiller, watch Blade Runner 2049.
Hail, Caesar! is a quirky Coen brothers comedy about a studio fixer trying to find a kidnapped movie star during the golden age of cinema, when westerns, musicals, and biblical epics dominated the box office. Josh Brolin exudes his typical gruff masculinity as fixer Eddie Mannix, while George Clooney plays a charming, if not particularly clever, star named Baird Whitlock. Numerous allusions to the flicks of the time delight; Channing Tatum is hilarious as a dancing sailor who is secretly a communist planning on defecting to the Soviet Union. None of the violence that sometimes features in the Coen brothers' work is on display--this is no No Country for Old Men or Fargo. A good time for any well-versed student of cinema, or simply an average Joe or Jane looking for something more charming than a Marvel movie or whatever drivel is showing on Netflix.
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