Probably the only person here who thought it was crap...

Rating: 4/10 (2 November 2008)

After some thought I have decided to give this film a 4, bearing in mind that whilst I have never reviewed a film before I would say that I am very generous person with points, therefore I am even more surprised how nearly no one had decided to criticise this film as it was. Frankly, I would have thought the average points on here would have about 4-5, to see that it got a 7.7 was shocking, to say the least.
The high score given here was the main reason why I went to see the film in the first place, little did I know that it was another one of those artsy fartsy films that certain people (probably those who would actually bother to leave a score) would rate it highly, which is exactly why I too decided to rate this film because I want to give this film the score it really deserves.
Immediately I noticed the similarity with 'The Big Labowski' and guessed that they were probably by the same writer. I never had the chance to finish 'The Big Labowski' mainly because I fell asleep after roughly half an hour of it. Honestly, who finds watching a sad ass loser living out his crappy life funny? Not to mention entertaining! This film and 'The Big Labowski' together are easily some of the worst comedies I have ever seen in my life, both films had showed no end of complete pointlessness and stupidity blown out of all proportion, with ridiculous story lines, though I am less sure about 'The Big Lebowski' because I didn't actually finish, and having sat through another film (and fighting to stay awake through some parts of it) by the same writer I am not sure that I want to.
Now, back to the film, I will try to analyse without giving away too much of the storyline. It is essentially a string of completely random story that is somehow connected and intertwined, an exploration of the famous six degrees of separation if you will (though a study by MS on msn found it was more like 7), a clever thing to write, true, but the way it was conveyed doesn't do this type of story justice, if you want to see lives intermingle, then watch 'Car Crash' or something. If you are looking to have a good laugh, well, you are much better off looking elsewhere, whilst there were the odd funny moments it is far from being funny enough to keep you entertained, which isn't helped by the severe lack of a realistic storyline, it becomes more believable as the story evolve, with people feeling the pressure and starting to break down, still it was like Alice went to wonderland without following the rabbit, it doesn't connect and thus makes no sense. A recent film that I had seen, 'Ghost Town' was far funnier.
It lacked any big idea, you can argue that it's about human nature but the film's portrays humanity in such a way that it assumes all men (and women)are evil/selfish, an overly pessimistic view of life, I am surprised how the Coens brother haven't yet committed suicide if that was what they thought of the world.
What surprised me even more, though, was the long list of brilliant actors, truth be told they did a tremendous job making the funny moments... well, funny. I think the only reason why they signed up to the film was because it was written by the Coens brothers, who seems to have had a long list of highly rated films.