After retiring from the military due to an injury, Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) now works as a contractor for eccentric billionaire Carson Welch (Bill Murray). Now that NASA is losing funding, the space race is being taken over by billionaires who have money to burn. Carson’s latest venture is to build a launch platform in Hawaii. To do this, he needs Hawaii native Brian to help negotiate a deal with the local chief.

Captain Allison Ng (Emma Stone) is the overly eager military personnel assigned to escort Brian during his trip. She is a very spirited, by the books type who quickly becomes frustrated with Brian. However, the more time she spends with Brian, the more she learns to relax and let her guard down.

Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams) is Brian’s ex-girlfriend. They were pretty serious before things ended. Brian obviously isn’t over Tracy, but she is now married to John (John Krasinksi) with two kids. With her marriage not being what she wants, Brian coming back to town certainly stirs up old feelings.

While working on negotiations with the chief, Brian and Allison discover things with the launch may not be exactly what they seem.

With a cast full of A-listers, I was expecting more. I was set to not like Emma Stone in her role. At the beginning, she overplays the gung-ho captain. It was a bit much. Luckily, she tones it down quickly. However, this makes her character lose a little credibility. Rachel McAdams and Bradley Cooper are fine in their roles, but nothing spectacular. John Krasinski is the only one who does a decent amount of acting in the film. His character doesn’t say much, but manages to say so much. In fact, there is an entire scene that takes place between John and Bradley where not a word is spoken. It is probably the funniest scene in the movie, even if it feels a bit out of place.

Bill Murray is always a welcome addition to a movie. He plays the eccentric billionaire perfectly. So perfectly, in fact, that I’m not sure he knew he was in a movie. I think they told him he was going to launch a satellite and then just started filming him. He runs with it, and is probably the most successful part in the movie.

The story is unique, kind of. The uptight person is paired with someone who doesn’t exactly follow the rules. They clash, then get along. The twist to this version is the love triangle with Brian’s ex-girlfriend. Things get a bit muddy in the middle, and the pace of the story feels all over the place. Slow at parts, then seemingly speeding things up to get to the next point.

Aloha is an interesting film. It’s interesting in that I don’t know exactly how I feel about it. It isn’t a bad movie. I just don’t know that it’s a good movie. I doubt that I will ever watch it again, but I don’t hate myself for seeing it once. It left me feeling a bit unsatisfied. I would recommend waiting until this one is out at the RedBox.