The Privatization Of Space Gone Amok- Bradley Cooper’s Aloha

DVD Review

By Sam

Lowell  

Aloha, starring Bradley Cooper, Emily Stone, Bill Murray, 2015   

Now that NASA is “old hat” the privateers have circled in to create their own space odysseys, for good or evil (“old hat” after having done yeoman’s service in giving the world over fifty years of great space adventures and increased our knowledge of the universe I don’t know how many-fold). That “old hat” designation the result of in real life the lack of serious desire by Congress to keep funding governmental efforts. Enter the privateer off-hand billionaires looking for a hobby (billionaire plus being the necessary minimum to even get a look-see at a space project which entails expensive high-tech research and resources). That shift from governmental support to private use is what drives this film under review, Aloha.    

Of course, private or public, when you talk about exploring or exploiting space you need scads of high-tech savvy guys and gals to run the operation-and smooth the rails. That is where military contractor Brian Gilcrest, played by Bradley Cooper, comes in. He is the agent for our generic billionaire, played by Bill Murray, who is looking via a private-military combine to launch a crackerjack satellite in Hawaii. Gilcrest is to smooth the rails among the various indigenous leaders on Hawaii who are looking for a pay-off for disturbing their land and their heritage. Of course with a joint enterprise the military needs to provide an escort and does so in the person of Captain Allison Ng, played by super-photogenic Emily Stone.

In the end, actually maybe the beginning as well, this is really a romantic comedy about how Gilcrest and the Captain finally get under the sheets after playing cat and mouse (meaning giving each other endless meaningful glances). There are a number of abstruse side issues like Brian’s relationship with an Air Force wife ex-girlfriend and with the paternity of her oldest daughter (Brian’s in the end), the role of nefarious governmental agents in setting up the billionaires’ nefarious plans and the evil designs of that standard brand billionaire who wants to rule the world via the control of space. Ho-hum. The only not ho-hum is that dance between Brian and Allison but that isn’t worth the price of admission here. Thin gruel indeed with talents like Cooper, Stone and the mad monk Bill Murray.