Hail Caesar!

Anything released by the Coen Brothers can be assured consideration in the end-of-the-year poles and Hail Caesar! is no exception.

The prolific Directors are on form again in a classic comedy farce which has ties and links to their previous filmography.

Recurrent Coen favourite George Clooney plays an actor kidnapped from Capitol Pictures (the same studio they created for Barton Fink) and it's up to studio 'fixer' (and, again, Coen recurrent) Josh Brolin to fix it.

Full of random moments and brilliant humour this zips along at a rapid pace and will require a second viewing to process it all. Similar to Burn After Reading stylistically but with lots and lots of nods to vintage, golden-era cinema.

The 'film-within-a-film' scenes are all excellent featuring brilliant cameos from A-grade actors like Scarlet Johansson and Channing Tatum and there's a brilliant scene involving Ralph Fiennes and a line of script which is all too hard to say.

It's not quite enough of a surprise once the plot unravels; unlike previous classics like Fargo and The Big Lebowski, but this is still a great addition to the Coen canon and a must-see.

4 stars ****