The Big Lebowski (1998) Movie Review

Director: Coen Brothers

Writers: Coen Brothers

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, John Turturro

In spite of how brilliant this movie is, so few of my friends have ever seen it.  I have never been in so many situations where my movie quotes have had to been explained. Clearly, this movie deserves far more recognition. It’s the story of how a dude’s rug gets pee’d upon and the cascade of events that ensue because of it.

One of the great things about the movie is that when you are watching it, you know that there is something more than simply the story of a dude and his rug. Speaking of the dude, Jeff Bridges provides an iconic and by far the best performance I have ever seen from him. He is such a laid-back character who garners respect from all his comrades. You really can’t help but sympathise with him. He spews some of the best lines heard… EVER! John Goodman also plays one of the most memorable characters in existence. I feel that that is the thing that makes this movie so incredible. It’s characters are immeasurably memorable (even Donnie who does almost nothing). I am going to need surgery to remove the memories of the movie (but I won’t because it’s excellent).

Hmm… let’s see… negatives. What did this movie do wrong. Perhaps you could argue that some of the characters come to nothing but you would be foolish because it all culminates with the brilliant line ‘the dude abides’. It shows that so much has happened that at this point, Jesus (the bowler) doesn’t to him. The investigator guy doesn’t matter to him and most certainly the teenage car thief doesn’t matter to him. I am really struggling here to find things wrong with this movie. The biggest criticism I have is on a purely mood scale. This movie is only watchable if you’re in the mood for really thinking about a movie. If you’re not… just watch Anchorman.

Clearly, I struggled finding anything wrong with this movie. There is so much to enjoy with the film and I am amazed that I had never watched it prior to a few weeks ago. Even saying it’s great to think about deeply can be debunked. There is enough humour and captivating story for you to passively watch it. Just stop reading this review and go to Amazon. Buy the movie. Watch it as soon as possible. Your life will improve.

Recommendation Status: Unmissable

Please feel free to leave a comment on either the movie or the review. Say if you liked or disliked the movie. I'm interested to find out what you think!

Small Soldiers (1998) Movie Review

Alan Abernathy works at his dad’s toyshop and illegally procures some new action figures. He leaves for the night and returns to find that all the action figures have disappeared and the shop ransacked. It’s not a burglar however; the toys are programmed using military grade microchip. This enables the toys to have never before seen AI capabilities. This spawns a game of cat and mouse between the two factions of toys. We have ourselves a movie.

This movie is basically a pile of bollocks. My first major gripe with the movie is the main character. Alan is supposedly a locally renowned rebel. It’s even said that he got kicked out of two schools before moving to this town. If I’m honest, I could probably beat this guy in a fight. I don’t know if it was implied that none of this was true but either way this character was pure crap. The development of the character is just stupid. Alan befriends the leader of one of the toy factions. This makes absolutely no sense. Firstly, I was under the assumption that people befriended others for actual reasons. This toy destroyed Alan’s dad’s shop, brought all of his life-impeding toy friends to Alan’s house and brought Alan into a literal war between two groups of military grade toys. Despite this, Alan, the supposedly rebellious delinquent manages to find it somewhere in his heart to have affection for this hunk of plastic.

The special effects in this movie actually make me want to gouge my own eyes out. I cannot even believe that someone earned money by creating this disgusting CGI pile of garbage. It isn’t even consistent. The lesser commando toys looked pretty authentic, while Tommy Lee Jones’ character looks like he has just been melted down and vaguely put back together using his remaining sludge pile.

There are very few things that make this film not seem like something stolen from Beelzebub’s bedroom. Luckily, the movie every so often has some decently entertaining scenes. Namely, any scene that has David Cross in it. Despite his overall stupidity, this movie really can’t be salvaged from the landfill site of idiocy it has built around itself.

This is very close to being one of the worst and dumbest movies that I have ever had the displeasure to witness. The director is lucky they had David Cross to counteract the horrific acting by the unbelievably bad actor who played Alan. This movie is truly terrible. I give this movie a 2/10 - Terrible

Have you seen ‘Small Soldiers’? If you have, let me know what you thought of it by leaving a comment on this review. Perhaps even suggest a movie for me to review next.