Trying too hard to be quirky - and failing.

Rating: 1/10 (4 April 1999)

I love the Coen Brothers work.
I watched all their films, and Fargo was in many ways the best.
However, their latest effort - The Big Lebowski - I found almost unwatchable. The Coen Brothers' films have always, shall we say, been quirky. This hasn't got in the way of good acting, a great script, an interesting plot, a relevant musical score, or excellent cinematography.
However in this film, the quirkiness got in the way of everything else. The plot is awful; the script is dire, with the dreaded 'f' work appearing at least once every five seconds (I'm not anti-swearing, but I do get intensely bored of hearing the same dialogue over and over again), the acting is uninspired - Buscemi is totally wasted, Bridges is irritatingly whining (though Tuturro is great, in a small part), the score is unmemorable and the camerawork is dull, except for the dream sequences, which seem forced, irrelevant and pretentious.
I couldn't wait for this movie to end. I also cannot believe that people honestly buy into the hype and liked this movie. This is NOT a good movie.