Inherent Vice

Here you have it!  Another Hipster, pretentious movie that insists upon itself over and over again!  I can hear it now, the so called intellectuals who hear anyone not liking the film come running for miles to tell you why you’re wrong!  With Inherent Vice, you will find a film that tried entirely too hard to be the next generations Big Lebowski, failing miserably of course!  Here is the breakdown which makes it even more disappointing.  Crime, Drama, and Comedy is what the categories are affiliated with this thing.  Let’s start with crime; apparently through the first 2 hours of the movie we don’t know if there even is a crime.  Second, drama; more of a drama but then you can’t take it seriously due to the campy, indie sarcasm.  Third; comedy, I think I laughed twice but that might have been due to boredom.  There were some good elements such as the cast, outstanding.  Acting, pretty good especially since Josh Brolin stole the show.  Phoenix plays a good lazy, looser, hippie and finally made it on my list of a whopping two movies he is any good in.  Over dialogue, too many directions with stupid coincidences and honestly it just didn’t tie together to make any sense.  My take is that Phoenix and Brolin played opposite characters in the film that were connected in an alter ego sort of way.  That right there tells you that this movie thought way too much of itself.  Rob Ivins said he thought this was a big turd, and I would 90% agree.  Give it a watch is you have 2 1/2 hours to spare, just don’t have expectations too high.

FYI:  This movie would have been awesome if the Coen brothers would have done it!

**1/2