Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) has always wanted to be in the space program. His military career is over and he has recovered from a terrible incident in Kabul. He is working for mercurial billionaire Carson Welch (Bill Murray) who is building a private rocket facility in Hawaii. He needs to recruit the locals to bless a gate. The military assigns Air Force pilot Allison Ng (Emma Stone) as his watchdog. Gilcrest reconnects with his former love Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams) who has a family with Woody (John Krasinski).

Wow! Cameron Crowe has cobbled together a crazy set of story elements. Emma Stone is part Chinese Hawaiian. Her character is an insane writer's creation. Her acting does no favor to the character. There's a rocket launch and an international peace treaty. The Chinese are hacking and there's an audio weapon. There is a lot of Hawaiian mysticism. I do love Rachel McAdams. She is absolutely enchanting and her part of the movie actually works. That only teases a much better movie somewhere in this convoluted mess.

In theory, this sounds like a really promising project. The writer and director is Academy Award winner Cameron Crowe. Lead actor is Bradley Cooper, who scored 3 Academy award nominations in a row recently. Supporting actresses are Rachel McAdams and Emma Stone who have decent talent and are both recent Oscar nominees too. Bill Murray is a personal favorite and I don't mind Alec Baldwin either. I saw the rating, but sometimes I like films that are not considered great by most others, but this 105-minute film here does not fall under this category.

Such a shame. I am not the greatest Bradley Cooper fan and I don't really see that much talent in him. This movie confirms my theory that he is one of the most overrated actors right now. Here he is stuck between a former girlfriend and a new woman who enters his life. Also this film deals with the interests of indigenous Hawaiian citizens in an attempt to be also socially relevant. Unfortunately, it fails in almost every regard. The love story feels never credible and the script reduces the talented cast to a couple terrible lines and their mannerisms aren't much better. The drama is equally forgettable. It is so by the books, nothing unpredictable (sadly nothing realistic either) and it's certainly not a good watch.

What is there left to say. If you want a truly great film about Hawaiian culture, let me recommend you Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" starring George Clooney. It also offers plots in terms of family struggles like this film here, but it's all so much more refined, better-written and better acted. "Aloha" is not a convincing watch at all and what pains me most is watching Bill Murray, an actor I usually adore, play such a stupid character. What were they thinking. The worst was when they turn him into some crazy scientist villain in the end. What the hell? That came so out of nowhere and suddenly Baldwin's character is the good guy. Yes that was unexpected, I have to correct myself, but in the worst possible way. And of course, in the end of the film, everything is fixed, all relationships, professional and personal, are perfectly fine. Cringeworthy stuff. Not recommended.

Cameron Crowe has been on a downward spiral for some time. He wants to make offbeat, kooky films with a heart. However some of his recent movies verge on being horribly inept.

Aloha has Bradley Cooper who stars as Brian. A military contractor injured in Afghanistan. Brian returns to his former home of Hawaii to strike a deal and have the blessing of some native Hawaiian tribes for the Space program on behalf of billionaire private industrialist Carson Welch (Bill Murray.)

His return means uniting with is ex-girlfriend Tracy (Rachel McAdams) who he last saw 13 years ago. She has now married to a military man John (John Krasinski) who says few words but speaks a lot through his body language and they have two children. One of which is a 12 year old daughter. I will use my non verbal communication skills to allow the reader to calculate 2+2=4!

Emma Stone is Captain Allison Ng, an uptight US Air Force liaison for Brian, Carson Welch and the US military who are being led up the garden path by the megalomaniac billionaire who has his own agenda which any Bond villain would be proud of.

Ng has a running joke throughout the film as she reminds everyone constantly that she is one quarter native Hawaiian as she obviously does not look it. She also falls for Brian

There seems to be nothing natural or organic in the story because Crowe wants to be off kilter. Everything seems forced lacking any kind of coherence with the story and characters.

Bradley Cooper who has become something of a sex symbol with the Hangover films actually comes across looking geeky in this film. He is also all at sea with a weak script. This man is a three year in a row Best Actor Oscar nominee.

Brian is a jerk and no way could I buy Ng falling for him. For a start he is too old for her, he is not nice, he uses people, he has little loyalty and is full of cynicism. As a romantic comedy it fails on two counts. There is no romance and there is no comedy.

The finale where Brian deals with some Chinese hack when the satellite is in mid air and then sabotage the launch with every recorded music is bizarre and silly to the extreme.

The film looks disjointed because it has all the hallmarks of post production tinkering and possible re-shoots. Some of it looks cheap, just watch the scene when Carson is apprehended supposedly in Japan.