The Big Lebowski

By Mal -

7 out of 10

As much as I desperately want to be one of the cool kids for whom this is the greatest movie ever, I continue to find it... gently funny. The Big Lebowksi, if you didn't already know, is the tale of dope-smoking slacker Jeff Lebowski, drawn into a kidnap plot by accident of his surname. Jeff Bridges plays the aforementioned Dude, alongside bowling partners Walter (John Goodman), a headcase Vietnam vet, and Donny (Steve Buscemi), a constant subject of abuse from Walter.

After the Dude is mistakenly harangued for ransom money, the story follows the shambolic attempts of this trio to extricate themselves from the plot and put things right. Chock full of catchphrases, ridiculous cameos, and wonderfully bizarre dream sequences, it's certainly got everything a movie-going hipster could want. I just never found it that much more than plain funny. I'm clearly not destined to be an achiever. :-/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Downfall

By -
7 out of 10 Hitler, eh, he was crackers, wasn't he, or was he? This film sets about trying to get the bottom of this question, detailing the last few hours of his life in his bunker in Berlin as the red army approached. The film, some would say rather controversially, answers the question early on with his pie fight with Himler coming as the starting credits fade. What follows is a romp through the final desperate hours of a ridiculous regime as they all, but their leader, seem to have grasped the fact that they’re buggered. The film has many memorable and chilling scenes, such as Dr Goebbels’ wife killing her own children rather than letting them fall into Communist hands. And the bit where Hitler’s dog is given cyanide for a laugh, with some superb acting by the dog. Anyway, if you’re interested in the madness of what went on in that bunker in Hitler’s last hours, this is for you. I would, however, also recommend Das Bunker und Laughs for a ve...
Read more

The Brothers Grimm

By -
5 out of 10 On the face of it The Brothers Grimm is a perfect match for the dark surrealism of Terry Gilliam . However it fails to live up to its potential. The brothers (played by Matt Damon and Heath Ledger ) are travelling con-artists who arrive in a village with a real fairy tale curse. For a Fairy tale the cinematography is very grey and brown. There is little of the Gilliam imagination that we might have expected. Most surprising of all is that the special effects ranged from the sublime (blobby gingerbread man) to the downright awful. A scene where a CGI scarf was floating down a river was particularly derisible. At times it seems that the script is a vehicle for referencing yet another fairy tale rather than to tell the tale that the viewer is actually watching. This is a shame because when the movie does get going there are moments to enjoy.
Read more