Name : Ann Hornaday / Alias : Washington Post
Aloha is such an inchoate mess, such a forced, insular, self-pleasing misfire, that plotting it out can be a challenge.

Name : Rafer Guzman / Alias : Newsday
"Aloha" is one of those films whose characters behave and speak so irrationally that they no longer make any human sense at all. Crowe may have had us at hello, but he's losing us with "Aloha."

Name : Mick LaSalle / Alias : San Francisco Chronicle
Crowe introduces a serious topic without really examining it, and even the romance feels off, with a pair of lovers who seem mismatched. To complete the picture, Crowe tags on an ending that's convenient but not convincing.

Name : Bill Goodykoontz / Alias : Arizona Republic
It's a big soap opera set against blastoffs, none of which is convincing.

Name : Sheri Linden / Alias : Hollywood Reporter
If Aloha's earthbound elements are uneven, its rocket-launch aspects are downright confounding.

Name : Peter Rainer / Alias : Christian Science Monitor
Crowe is deft at keeping the various plots spinning, but there are too many of them, and they don't intersect pleasingly.

Name : Chris Vognar / Alias : Dallas Morning News
Aloha, for all its spasms of charm, feels like a push-button romance, its heroes glibly spouting lines with the hope that the words come to mean something.

Name : Gwynedd Stuart / Alias : Chicago Reader
Even if this were well made in a technical sense, it would still be a weird heap of patriotism, astronomy, and Hawaiian folklore, piled atop a pat and predictable love story.

Name : Colin Covert / Alias : Minneapolis Star Tribune
How delightful to see a film that begins and closes in outer space be so warmly stargazing.

Name : Lindsey Bahr / Alias : Associated Press
Another fascinating mess from an earnest and occasionally excellent filmmaker who can't seem to recreate the enveloping magic and charm of his earlier films.

Name : Richard Roeper / Alias : Chicago Sun-Times
Aloha is a great-looking movie with just enough bright spots to get us past the cloudy moments.

Name : Mark Olsen / Alias : Los Angeles Times
Even with its off-balance, overstuffed storytelling, the film maintains a charm and energy that never flags, with brisk pacing and generally engaging performances from its deep-bench cast.

Name : Andrew Lapin / Alias : NPR
Crowe displays a willingness to reach for ambitious ideas and big-hearted, emotionally naked moments that other name-brand filmmakers are too terrified to explore. Aloha is a big mess, but it's also at war with American cynicism, and wars get messy.

Name : Bilge Ebiri / Alias : New York Magazine/Vulture
It comes at us in choppy bursts of brilliance and dopiness. That is at once its great charm and its great curse.

Name : Nathan Rabin / Alias : Globe and Mail
Aloha is a marshmallow of a film: soft on the inside, soft on the outside and wholly devoid of substance.

Name : Joe Neumaier / Alias : New York Daily News
"Aloha" isn't horrible, but it does have a pitiable odor about it, like a dog that's sat too long on the beach.

Name : Peter Travers / Alias : Rolling Stone
Filmmaker Cameron Crowe can't catch a break with Aloha, a Hawaii-set romcom that is a handful of stories struggling for a unifying tone, but is nowhere near as toxic as its advance buzz.

Name : Preston Jones / Alias : Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
Now, Cameron Crowe's name above the title feels less like an invitation, and more like a warning.

Name : Wesley Morris / Alias : Grantland
None of this "works." But it usually worked on me.

Name : Ty Burr / Alias : Boston Globe
"Aloha" is as generic as its title. The islands exist solely as an exotic backdrop for the pretty Hollywood haoles to play in. Business as usual, and I never thought I'd say that about a Cameron Crowe movie.

Name : A.A. Dowd / Alias : AV Club
Perhaps the energy Crowe could have expended on shaping believable characters went instead to the cultural context.

Name : Chris Nashawaty / Alias : Entertainment Weekly
It happens. Really talented directors sometimes step into the batter's box, take a gigantic swing, and whiff.

Name : Steven Rea / Alias : Philadelphia Inquirer
For all the screwball patter, smart-aleck similes, and zingy one-liners that Crowe has handed his mismatched cast, a kerplunking emptiness runs through Aloha.

Name : Lisa Kennedy / Alias : Denver Post
This is a romantic comedy that has more than hearts on its mind. In addition to teasing the uneasy and complicated partnership of the military and the private sector, Crowe takes on issues integral to Hawaii.

Name : James Berardinelli / Alias : ReelViews
It's hard to find a level on which Aloha works. It's a murky, muddled mess.

Name : Michael Phillips / Alias : Chicago Tribune
The first encounter among Cooper, McAdams and Stone is so awkward and unsettled that it becomes the movie's own albatross. There are some moments, most of them thanks to McAdams.

Name : Tom Long / Alias : Detroit News
Where to begin with Aloha? Begin by not going to the movie.

Name : Moira MacDonald / Alias : Seattle Times
The result is a movie that's well-meaning but nearly unwatchable. Stay home and watch a better Crowe movie instead, and ponder what went wrong.

Name : Stephen Whitty / Alias : Newark Star-Ledger
At least this feels like a Cameron Crowe movie.

Name : Alan Scherstuhl / Alias : Village Voice
Cameron Crowe writes movies like he's calling us in eighth grade with his heart on fire.

Name : Peter Howell / Alias : Toronto Star
A delayed and dismal attempt to marry screwball comedy with socially aware drama.

Name : A.O. Scott / Alias : New York Times
The plot is a hash when it's not a drag, and the 100-odd-minute cut of the film arriving in theaters on Friday seems hacked from something longer and baggier.

Name : Christy Lemire / Alias : RogerEbert.com
"Aloha" feels like several films at once, crammed together and sped up, with results that are emotionally hollow and narratively confusing.

Name : Joe Williams / Alias : St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Blessed with a stellar cast and idyllic locale, Crowe seems reluctant to waste anything, including his own half-baked themes.

Name : Sara Stewart / Alias : New York Post
There are grand, romantic speeches that will endure forever from Crowe's earlier work - "Jerry Maguire," "Say Anything . . ." - but you can't build an entire movie on them. Nobody wants two hours of "You had me at hello."

Name : Andrew Barker / Alias : Variety
Unbalanced, unwieldy, and at times nearly unintelligible, Aloha is unquestionably Cameron Crowe's worst film.

Name : Rene Rodriguez / Alias : Miami Herald
This is the kind of film that is easier to mock than to grapple with on its own terms. It's littered with flaws, but sometimes those movies can be the most interesting ones. The Aloha cult fan club is officially open. I'll take one ticket, please.

Name : Alonso Duralde / Alias : TheWrap
The deepest understanding we get of any of these characters is that none of them would say the things that Crowe makes come out of their mouths.

Name : Joe Morgenstern / Alias : Wall Street Journal
I've never seen a movie quite like Aloha. That's meant neither as praise nor as a backhanded compliment; it's offered more in the spirit of one hand clapping.