At last, answers to all the great questions in life!

Rating: Null/10 (22 April 2004)

I've read the reviews and am convinced many of these people haven't actually seen this movie!! Finally we get the answers to all the really important questions in a package that is just outrageous enough to be proof of the Coen genius the truly devoted have come to love! Spoilers coming... minor compared to above... What happened to hippie activists from the 60's? Why, they end up burned out, over weight, unemployed and spend their time bowling! When they can't bowl, they listen to bowling on tape!! Wow, the rewards of fighting the good fight are rich indeed!
What happened to Viet Nam vets who didn't have PTSD and weren't consumed by the system when they came home? They convert to Judaism, level the world and all it's rationality with their over-blown opinions and reactionary jargon, and... go bowling!
What happened to surfers from the 60's? They become meek, voiceless, irrelevant punching bags for the oafish Viet Nam vets, and... go bowling!
Ah, life is good, I can rest at night! This movie is so genius, to call it genius might be an insult to the movie! (I think John Goodman's character should have said that in the movie!) The Coen brothers show their mastery of dialog, once again. Also, they have gifted us with a movie that opens up the lives of the truly average, and makes them interesting enough that we can't look away. (Just see Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Man Who Wasn't There if you want proof they can do this over and over!). The Coen touches that make this movie genius include the pointless Sam Elliot narration, Donnie the doormat, the Nihlists, the total inability of the characters to correctly identify a four legged animal, the omnipresent White Russian, smoking a J in a stranger's house without permission as though it were considered good etiquette, dream sequences that rival Madonna videos, a naked lady suspended from the ceiling painting her masterpiece, the car that wouldn't die, until it did, a photo of the dust bowl that is supposed to make a porno star homesick, and, the winner of the genius touches in a Coen brother's film, a famous television writer in his own livingroom in an Iron Lung in the 90's!!!! Wow, you couldn't find all these amazing things in 1000 movies combined and Joel and Ethan give them to us in one rousingly laid back adventure!! Thank you and hats off to the brothers! I'll keep on watching and keep on enjoying this one for years.