Films

The Big Lebowski [1998]

Director: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Actor: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Peter Stormare, John Turturro

If there had been a machine that could distill all the cool and awesome out of every cool and awesome thing that has ever happened, ever, I’m sure that some of that pure coolness and awesome ended up in this particular Coen Brothers movie. I must’ve seen this film at least half a dozen times, and it continues to make me laugh as much the last time as it did the first.

The story is about The Dude (Bridges), a lazy, unemployed guy without a care in the world, bowling his time away with his friends Walter (Goodman) and Donnie (Buscemi). He shares his real name, Jeff Lebowski, with an old, rich and vain man who has a young, trophy wife who is an ex-pornstar whose escapades all over town leads her to owe money to known pornographer Jackie Treehorn. Treehorn sends his goons to retrieve the money, but these boneheads shake down the wrong Lebowski; The Dude. In the process, one of them, in an act of fuck-offedness, pisses on The Dude’s rug, ruining it forever. The Dude decides to talk to The Big Lebowski to get compensated for his loss. By the time he does so, Bunny, the ex-pornstar wife of The Big Lebowski, is kidnapped, and Lebowski wants The Dude to help in delivering the ransom money. The Dude gets caught up in a big conspiracy, with feints within feints. Hilarity ensues.

The acting is top-notch. Jeff Bridges usually does these really straight-laced roles, but here draws together every aspect of lazy together in a great, great character. John Goodman plays a tremendously disturbed ‘Nam veteran, obviously intelligent and well-read, but dealing with intense rages. Julianne Moore plays Maude Lebowski, The Big Lebowski’s eccentric daughter, is a bit of a caricature, but one that’s very lovable in her weird way.

The Coen Brothers don’t necessarily have all the best movies, perhaps most of them are pretty good, but for me they’re not all very enjoyable (Oh, Brother… for instance), but they certainly know how to make a movie that falls outside the norm that Hollywood preaches. They make refreshing and exciting films that defy the normal formula, and therefore remain unpredictable.

Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle [2004]

Director: Danny Leiner
Actor: John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris

Harold (Cho) is a Korean-American investment banker. Well, he’s a junior, which means he does all the work while his seniors go to meetings and lunches and hang around the coffee machine all day. Kumar (Penn) is an Indian-American student, extremely intelligent and gifted and has a natural knack for medicine, just like his successful and demanding father and brother. They’re roommates and they like to get high together, during which they usually come up with bone-headed plans and get into all kinds of trouble. Harold feels in a funk because he’s in love with Maria, the girl that lives in the next apartment, but doesn’t dare to approach her, on top of that he’s being fucked by his senior co-workers to do all the work. Kumar is busy rebelling against his father’s wishes that he goes to med-school, and doesn’t take any of his application interviews seriously.

One night, Harold needs to do a lot of work, but Kumar convinces him to get high together. While high, they see a commercial for White Castle on television, a fast-food chain the likes of Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonald’s. There’s one difference between White Castle and the rest of the chains; their burgers are like little bits of heaven. Of course, being high and having the munchies, they go on a quest to find the nearest White Castle and have some of these burgers.

During their quest they run into all kinds of trouble, get arrested, meet two hot diarrhea-loving British chicks, a weed-obsessed hippy, bigot punks, and a near-sociopathic, drugged out Neil Patrick Harris, the guy who used to play Dougie Howser, MD. All the while Harold tries to come to terms with his love for Maria, and Kumar tries to come to terms with the fact that he’s going to be an outstanding doctor.

This is a film in the Bill & Ted-genre of film, and it suffers from all the same problems, while still being incredibly entertaining. I can’t wait for the next installment, out this year, called Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay!