A Film of 2 halves

Rating: 5/10 (17 May 1999)

This film starts off a treat and for the first hour its lightning pace doesn't let up. We are introduced to a likable rogue in Jeff Bridges' character, Jeff Lebowski and his friends who spend all their time bowling, drinking and smoking and its fun, Bridges gets mistaken for another (rich) Jeff Lebowski, whose wife has been kidnapped for ransom. John Goodman is great as his psycho Vietnam freak pal although Coen favourites Steve Buscemi and John Turturro seem wasted in do-little supporting roles. Anyway the story unravels well until all of a sudden the razor sharp humour is replaced by the constant blurting out of four letter words, while the storyline just seems to shoot itself in the foot and the whole film becomes one big muddle, and at nearly 2 hours it seems to go on for far too long. A shame, although the film does try desperately to wrap up a mountain of loose ends at the end but by that time you will have probably lost interest in it altogether. Despite all of this, worth a look as you will laugh at most of the jokes.