Best Mr. Popper's Penguins (Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) (2011) Deals

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You live in an apartment in New York City and work within sight of the Empire State building. Your life is hectic but predictable.

Imagine getting a very unusual gift (turns out, later, to be from your father). It is a live gentoo penguin. Wanting to send it back, you ask for a return crate. You get a new crate all right--filled with five new penguins.

What a mess your apartment soon becomes! You get snipped at and dumped on by the penguins. You give them names, such as Nimrod, Stinky, Captain, etc. They are perpetually playful! The penguins swim in the bathtub and spill water all over. Your children from a terminated marriage come to visit, and, having long been alienated from you, absolutely fall in love with the penguins.

A nosy neighbor wonders what the noises are from your apartment and, suspecting that he is on to something, wants to tell the board about it. Worse yet, your new nemesis, a penguin specialist who works in the zoo, keeps spying on you. He has a behaviorist view of animals (making animals little more than machines made of flesh), and is determined to take your penguins from you. To him, penguins are simply fish-eating machines. He doubts if a non-specialist can properly care for penguins, and especially ridicules the notion that a loving bond has developed between the penguins and you.

In time, you turn your apartment into a winter wonderland, complete with snow, ice skating, etc. Some of the penguins lay eggs, and you are determined that they hatch. Your colleagues from work stumble upon your transformed apartment, and think that you have totally lost your mind. Your penguins follow you around wherever you go, and this produces its own share of comic events.

Everything comes to a head from the nosy neighbor, the penguin specialist, the kids, Popper's ex-wife, and his work colleagues. Popper is accused of breaking the law by housing penguins. He is fired from his job. He tries to win his ex-wife back. The penguin specialist has all of Popper's penguins. The apartment is normal once again, and the visiting children are heartbroken. And then... I will not spoil the ending by revealing it.

This is a very entertaining and heartwarming movie for the whole family. If you are an animal lover, this little tale is definitely for you.

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Took my 7 year old daughter to see this movie today & Im really glad we went!

From the previews I thought the movie was going to be boring & lame, but I was pleasantly surprised with the movie!

The movie ran at a fast & very entertaining pace...

The theater audience laughed, laughed & then laughed some more...

The movie has comedy for sure, but also tells a great story & has a few very good life lessons in it...

The lengths Carrey takes to take care of these Penguins is just AWESOME!!!

Jim Carrey did a fantastic job as the lead actor...

He shows signs of his old hillarious humor from his early films, but is not sooooo over the top in this film as he was in past films...

He showed true heart & was very believable in his role!!!

The Penguins were unbelievably funny & simply amazing! They must have had some serious training!

The supporting acting was pefectly done by Mr. Poppers kids & ex wife...

Overall I give this movie an A...

I would recommend going to see this movie while its in the theaters...

I would also recommend it for adults & children...

Thanks for reading my review!

Best Deals for Mr. Popper's Penguins (Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) (2011)

Between Mr. Popper's Penguins and The ZooKeeper, ... I liked them both, but I liked Mr. Popper's Penguins more. Kids loved it too. Nice story. Has been while since I saw a Jim Carrey movie,... thought he did a good job in this role. And the penguins are hilarious! I didn't quite get that incredible name of Mr. Popper's assistant,.... with the fun voice and accent, ... miss P (?),... but I liked her character/role too. So many fun scenes in this movie. We had a good time.

Honest reviews on Mr. Popper's Penguins (Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) (2011)

I'm sorry. I forfeited all objectivity once the first penguin waddled on camera. Jim Carrey's past few flicks have been hit or miss with me, and maybe a part of it is that I've gotten accustomed to his schtick, despite the impressive rubber face and manic body contortions that would make a yogi master weep. And maybe I'm still holding NUMBER 23 against him. But what's cuter than an infestation of penguins? My niece and nephews adored this film. MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS, with its predictability and obvious gags, rises above the dreck by dint of penguins. Plus, it's got Carla Gugino, hotness personified.

Jim Carrey plays Tommy Popper, a businessman severely focused on his career. But, first, we see Tommy as a child who spends a span of years communicating with his father via ham radio. His dad is an explorer who is always away on exotic expeditions, and, over time, we witness young Tommy grow disillusioned with his absentee father. Thirty years later, Tommy Popper is divorced with custody of his two kids on alternate weekends. Tommy himself has become a neglectful parent. All he's focused on is securing a partnership in his firm, a position guaranteed him once he bags a primo piece of real estate called the Tavern on the Green.

The status quo gets topsy-turvied when Tommy receives a shipment of penguin to his upscale New York apartment. And then another crate of five more penguins. When his kids come over for a visit, they fall in love with them. From there the plot unfolds in by-the-numbers fashion. You may guess that Tommy Popper turns over a new leaf and becomes a better father, to the detriment of his career. You may conjecture that he becomes smitten with his ex-wife all over again, although how in heck do you fall out of love with Carla Gugino in the first place? There's fun in watching Popper gradually convert his swank Manhattan duplex into a sub-arctic region, just to accomodate the birds and to connect with his kids. Other than the usual thorny family dilemmas that inevitably crop up, the narrative conflict hinges on Clark Gregg's (a.k.a. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent Colson) scheming NYC zoo official who covets the six penguins because they're of the rarer gentoo breed.

I was somewhat impressed when I learned thru the bonus features that there's a higher percentage of real penguins in action here than one would assume. (Obviously the scene in which Carrey dances with the penguins is CG-rendered.) Several of the penguins are given enough character traits that they stand out. We learn that "Captain" suffers from flight envy. That "Nimrod" tends to bump into and fall over things. That "Stinky"... well, you can guess his specialty. The others Lovey, Bitey, and Loudy are descriptive enough. The birds' ridiculous antics won me over. Jim Carrey tones his stuff down, as well, and this is a welcome thing. And I did love his compulsively alliterative personal assistant Pippi (Ophelia Lovibond). I recommend this family flick for those who think penguins are funny. But for those who couldn't care less about penguins meaning that there's no buffer or filter thru which the bad bits can be digested there are moments in the movie that simply defy believability (like a penguin hang-gliding) and they well may hike up ye olde blood pressure. MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS is not subtle. You'll see every plot point coming, predict every pratfall. It'll be as if you're watching the addled Mirror Universe version of the MARCH OF THE PENGUINS. But the kids will laugh themselves silly. I did, too.

The DVD's bonus material:

Audio Commentary by director Mark Waters, editor Bruce Green, & visual effects supervisor Richard Hollander

All-New Animated Short: "Nimrod & Stinky's Antarctic Adventure" (00:06:08 minutes)

Gag Reel (00:01:58 minutes)

2 Deleted Scenes with optional commentary from the director, editor, & visual effects supervisor (totaling 00:02:08 minutes)

"Ready for Their Close-Up" A behind-the-scenes look at the real stars of the film: them penguins (00:08:25 minutes)

"Ladies and Gentoomen" SeaWorld San Diego's senior level aviculturist Jessica Perry divulges fun (or informative, anyway) facts about gentoo penguins (00:05:53 minutes)

Original Story Sampler enjoy the first three chapters of the 1938 children's book MR. POPPER'S PENGUINS by Richard and Florence Atwater on which the film was based

Theatrical Trailer

Sneak Peeks at SPY KIDS: ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD and TOOTH FAIRY 2

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Jim Carey is funny and finally decides to please the kids and his wife. Movie is great, enjoyed, the moral content is top notch and it is always clean.

Discount Disneynature: Earth (Blu-ray / DVD Combo) (2009)

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I bought this because of the way it was advertised. It was said that they followed 3 families, polar bear, whale and elephant families. I already saw BBC Planet Earth and I have a copy. I knew that it was made from footage taken at the same time that planet earth was filmed by BBC however I thought, because of the hype, that it would have additional footage of those 3 particular animal families that maybe they didn't put in the other films because of time constraints or they didn't want to dwell too much on one thing. I was wrong The footage on Disney's DVD is exactly the same. They show a lot of footage that does not pertain to any of the 3 groups to fill the added time. The photography is good, the views breathaking and worth watching but if you have a copy of the BBC planet earth series, don't buy it; you already have a copy of all the footage on those. There is nothing new here and it does not follow the 3 families in detail as advertised. If you don't have the plant earth dvds and you want a much more shortened version you would enjoy this.

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I've read a lot of reviews complaining that this is just Planet Earth repackaged, and it is the same footage...but, can you beat the Planet Earth footage?? Nope! We have the Planet Earth series, but there is no way my kids would sit and watch it. The Disney Earth movie took the best and funniest bits and pieces of Planet Earth, added a more "kid friendly" voice, and packaged it into a 1 1/2 hour film. My 5, 3, and 2 year old ALL sat down to watch this entire movie and laughed and screamed to whole time. They loved it!!! And I loved watching it with them. Ever since, they've been pretending about waterfalls and jungles and safaris and such. Great short version of Planet Earth for the kids!!! Ignore the other complaining reviews!

Best Deals for Disneynature: Earth (Blu-ray / DVD Combo) (2009)

This film shows how truly beautiful our planet is!! it's breathtaking! The animals are very cute and a joy to watch. However, this movie shows the harsh realities of what nature is and this can be very disturbing to both sensitive souls and children. It shows animals struggling for their lives and being captured by other animals. It shows the harsh reality of polar bears struggling to find food and starving to death. It is not a quick scene or two. The circle of life, animals being hunted by other animals, makes up a large portion of the film. Now, I understand that this is important to document because it is real and we can't hide from nature. I get this. I also get this film's message of preserving our environment so that the polar bears have a place to live and have food to eat, etc. The environmental message is very important. The problem is that the film's trailer is deceiving. It looks like a film that focuses on the positive qualities of nature and a movie geared more for children. It is much too upsetting. This movie should not be rated G. It should be rated pg13. There were a lot of children in the theater when I went to see this and they were crying with the long, drawn out scenes of the animals about to die and be eaten. It was just too much for them to handle and I saw parents shaking their heads and leaving the theater with their crying children. As an animal lover and very sensitive person, I spent the majority of the film with hands over my eyes and crying because I hate to see any animal suffer or die, even if it is nature. I understand that death is a part of nature. But I don't want to have to see it for the majority of a movie. Some people are okay with this and are a bit tougher. That is fine for them. The movie is still beautiful and it really makes you appreciate our planet. I just wanted to warn those who feel like me and those who have children. Be prepared.

Honest reviews on Disneynature: Earth (Blu-ray / DVD Combo) (2009)

This nature documentary is a 90-minute mini-version of the much longer Planet Earth produced by the BBC. The latter production took five years to make, had a $25 million budget, and employed the latest in photographic technology. The super slow motion and time lapse techniques are especially impressive. Watching the twelve-month transformation of a forest in 30 seconds is spectacular. Earth focuses on three animal "families"--a polar bear and two cubs, a herd of elephants, and then a mother and baby humpback whale that make a 4,000 mile migration. In between these three stories the film intersperses takes from the longer documentary. My only complaint is that this production oversells the product with music that at times is both melodramatic and cutesy, and a corny narration that is clearly intended for young children ("Time for mom and dad to fix breakfast for junior!"). If there is any nature photography that does not need hype, this big screen version is it. Still, like its longer predecessor, Earth makes for fantastic family viewing.

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I wish I would have done more research before purchased "Earth." "Earth" is a basically a condensed, child friendly version of "Planet Earth." It's great if you want to expose your children to the wonders of planet earth, but they lack the patience to sit through the BBC series. I also thought the narration left something to be desired. It did not really add much to the film and felt "dumbed-down." Disney's choice of James Earl Jones was also kind of comical, as I felt that Darth Vader himself was teaching me about the earth. The movie looks great, but we have seen it all before. If the series "Planet Earth" never came out, I could easily give this 4 stars, but "Earth" is just recycled footage with dry narration.

Cheap Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012)

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The Ice Age series, across the four in the series, has been full of adventure and fun, and Continental Drift is no different. Scrat the squirrel starts the continental drift in his never ending pursuit of the acorn. Manny is separated from Ellie and Peaches during the drift and there begins his adventure with buddies Diego and Sid.

Sid is united with his family who, it turns out, just wanted to leave his granny with him and disappear. The granny, voice of Wanda Sykes, brings in fine humor. The pack, in their attempt to reunite Manny with his family, runs into evil Captain Gutt, the reigning pirate of the frozen waters. They venture off with his boat after beating his crew, only to run into him again. Here starts a friendship between Diego and Shira. Captain Gutt in a desperate attempt to get even with Manny holds Peaches hostage. Manny and the entire pack, including Granny, fight back with gusto.

The overall pace and adventure of The Continental Drift is at par with the previous versions, it's non-stop adventure with funny scenes that kids will enjoy. However, it feels like more of the same over and over again. There isn't much depth of content, no new ideas, no scintillating graphics, and no meaningful development of characters.

That being said, the movie is still great fun for the entire family. It's adventurous, funny, and definitely worth a watch.

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Last summer, my family and I saw this movie, as we are die-hard fans of the Ice Age film franchise since the first film was released in 2002. Laughed from beginning to end. We saw it twice in the theater, we enjoyed it that much! When it came out on Blu-ray/DVD (which I got for Christmas), we enjoyed it even more!

The plot: Sid, Manny and Diego are definitely in for the ride of their lives when they met a set of pirates, and Diego gets a girlfriend (voiced by J-Lo!).

If you liked Pirates of the Carribean and if you love the Ice Age movies, you'll love Ice Age 4: Continental Drift!

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I thought this was an excellent movie. The story line was perfect for children to understand that chosen friends based on looks or how cool they appear to be, doesn't make them good friends or the type of person you would really consider a true friend.

Ice Age gets better with each new version.

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I dont know if im happy i bought this or not. I ordered this a month ago and ive watched it probably 48 times with my 3 year old little girl. The movie is great, but be careful if you have a little one you will become more familiar with this movie than you ever expected lol

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Really enjoyed this movie with the kids this summer, as we have all previous Ice Age movies. Non-stop fun and adventure for Manny and his pack. The squirrel with the acorn gets a little irritating in this one, but the kids love it. As for me, I still think that the best character they have had across all Ice Ages was Buck in Age of the Dinosaurs (don't remember exact name). They should bring Buck back!

Cheap Adventures in Lalaloopsy Land: Search for Pillow (2012)

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The Lalaloopsy dolls are huge right now, and they have finally made the transition from toy to the little screen. It was rather successful, if you are looking for a cute, completely inoffensive movie that anyone can watch. The main seven original Lalaloopsy dolls are the focus of the movie, along with Rosy Bumps and Bruises and four of the Lalaloopsy littles the sister dolls and all of their respective pets. It's the little sisters that make the show so cute and adorable, as they toddle around, saying things in a childish, simple manner that's quite endearing and very much like little bitty sisters do. The older Loopsies are very sweet and understanding. They have all personalities but are definitely nice girls, every single one of them, and they play off well with each other. This is a refreshing change from having a few "nasty" characters in the mix, like with other series. In Lalaloopsy Land, everyone is considerate, caring and nice.

The plot is all about Peanut Big Top's surprise she is going to show everyone at dark. The girls can't wait and are passing the time until then when they notice that Pillow Featherbed went off to find a ball they were playing with and didn't come back. They organize a search for her and get caught up in some sew sweet antics and a little storm along the way. Don't worry, nothing harrowing has happened to Pillow, she's simply napping again, as she seems a touch narcoleptic. The simple story is wrapped up nice with a happy ending and a great big bow. Some of the cinematography was quite impressive as well, with some unusual camera angles and transitions, as the camera follows the animals around. This made a nice touch. It's also done in flash-like animation style, which is a relief after the deluge of poorly done CGI movies. This one doesn't look like it was done in someone's basement on 1990s computers (like the Bratz series, which has horrible animation), it has a paper doll kind of style that really suits the characters, and everything is bright and smooth, and in widescreen to boot!

Adventures in Lalaloopsy Land: The Search for Pillow is good spirited fun. Older girls will like it because it is about their favorite characters, and the littlest ones can watch it with their sisters because there really is nothing objectionable at all about this movie. Nothing. It is pure sew sweetness from start to finish. Which is really nice, as there are not a lot of movies that can appeal to a wide range of youngsters out there these days. A very relaxing movie, and quite enjoyable. It's one long "D'aaaaaaaaaaaw".

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My two year old LOVES this movie. It is adorable and not nearly as annoying as some of the other shows aimed for little girls. We love it! Great purchase:)

Best Deals for Adventures in Lalaloopsy Land: Search for Pillow (2012)

My daughters got an opportunity to catch a sneak peek on Nick Jr., and they loved, loved this movie. Unfortunately, I didn't think to record the movie on our DVR, so I bought it. If you have girls that adore Lalaloopsies, then they will adore this movie. My girls grabbed their Lalaloopsy dolls, and acted along with the movie, so that their dollies were also in on the adventure. In a way, the movie helped foster their imaginations as they play with their dolls. Even after the movie ended, my daughters continued Pillow's adventure..lol.

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Great movie...my six-year grandaughter loved it. She has several of the dolls, and she enjoyed seeing them "live" on the screen. Recommended for all grandads babysitting.....

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I love that the Lalaloopsy movie has good morals of friends helping each other with no bad attitudes for kids to copy. It's adorable and entertaining for young kids.

Review of 3D Animation Careers

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As a Careers teacher in a Middle School classroom, I will definitely use this video. It is a fine overview in a field a lot of young people are interested in. Unfortunately, I'll need to spend some time explaining to the students that technology industries employ a huge diversity of people from all over the world, despite what it looks like based on this video.

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WILD AFRICA 3D - An Extraordinary Journey (Blu-ray 3D & 2D Version) Reviews

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I was entirely disappointed by Wild Africa. It contains very few real 3d images. There are some great underwater shots and a few quick 3d snippets on land but most of it is either entirely 2d or some kind of weird, remanufactured semi 3d that looks like puppets were imposed over landscape footage. My other complaint is the script; this is not National Geographic or Myron Perkins. It is random shots taken in a couple of obscure, plain Jane fields in Africa. The animal shots are repeated like a bad old war movie; the same Messerschmitt bursting into flames over and over again. It isn't interesting to watch or listen to. How can 3D wildlife in Africa be boring? This producer has managed to pull it off. Technical background: I have a 2012 Panasonic Viera 65" flatscreen and I used 4 pairs of 3d glasses, 2 each of Panasonic's glasses and 2 of another brand. I did this just to be certain it was the disk and not my equipment. I switched over and watched a bit of Life of Pi just to be certain and I can't blame my equipment. LOPi looked brilliant but this bowser was pathetic. Doesn't somebody at Amazon watch these things to maintain some quality control? Afterall this is not a major studio's production. Drop this title Amazon

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however, too many repeat shots. Something that's becoming common these days, 'more 3D' at the expense of repeats and boredom. There was good content, the visuals were good, I just need a little more from an adventure entitled 'Wild Africa 3D'.

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It was not the best 3Dit was very bland, the same old stuff. A sanitized boring movienothing special

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A good film and educational for kids that are not fortunate to visit Africa and see its wild life .

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3d was just so so. Not enough animal views they did a lot of underwater stuff, not what I expected in a wild Africa documentary . Do not recommend at all. Very disappointed as I pre ordered this had to wait a long time, and not worth it.

Cheap The Big Lebowski (Limited Edition) (1998)

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The Big Lebowski is on my top ten list of all time best films. I've seen A LOT of films by the way. I don't need to explain to anyone why this movie is so brilliant, and why it continues to be a cultural phenomenon. I mention these things first because I don't want people to feel like I'm giving the film one star. If I could I would give the movie 100 stars. What I'm giving such a poor review for is my distaste for movie studios pumping out special editon dvd's every few years because they know a film has a huge following. This new "bowling ball" edition of Lebowski is further proof that Universal has nothing but contempt for the fans of Big Lebowski. They wrap it up in a nice big package and make it look slick, but that's as far as the creativity goes into supplying anything new in terms of extras. Does anyone remember the terrible repackage they gave it a few years ago with a towel and coasters? No actual extras existed, but they still put it out as a revamped "deluxe edition". Well, don't expect much more here.

The only new extras to this edition are four very brief featurettes. They feature new interviews with all of the major players (with the exception of the Coen brothers, of course), but they mostly just sit around and say stuff like, "It's a great film! It's hilarious! Coen Brothers are geniuses!". Err, yeah, we know all of that. It also has a featurette that centers around the Lebowski Fest which is vaguely interesting for a few minutes until it turns into the same old "Lebowski is great!" territory. The featurettes are a snooze fest to say the least.

What really annoyed me with this DVD, though, is that they included the SAME "Making of Big Lebowski" documentary that has been on every release of this film! Not only that, it looks as if it was recorded from an old VHS tape and plastered onto a full screen format. It looks horrible, and what's more, we've all seen it before! How many times is Universal going to pump out the same damn extras to the same audience?? It's an insult to be charged more and more money for the same mediocre extras that were never that good to begin with. Luckily I was able to rent this and didn't actually buy it! "The Big Lebowski" will NEVER have proper extras until the people who created it (the Coen Brothers) are involved. We want a commentary, a full length documentary with in-depth interviews, and deleted scenes (and plenty of them!).

DON'T BUY THIS EDITION. It's junk! Simply keep the edition you already have (the very first edition) safely knowing that you are not missing anything with any other edition!

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"The Big Lebowski" is just perfect. Everything about this movie is a laugh riot, even the bits of dialogue that aren't punchlines. The cast is perfect, the writing is perfect... this movie has both Julianne Moore and Flea in it, what other movies can you say that about? Well, there was the Gus Van Sant "Psycho" remake, but that doesn't count. I found this movie by accident and I haven't let go of it since. I may not be a stoner but I will say I've found more happiness since I embraced my inner Dude.

Every time I go back to "Lebowski" I come away with something new that wasn't there before. Like the realization, this time around, that Jeff Bridges is not seen to throw a single bowling ball in the entire movie. And that Steve Buscemi's character rolls a strike every time we see him... except for the very final scene, for reasons that become clear a few moments later.

The rest of the cast is just superb. Remember Philip Seymour Hoffman as an unctuous PR man? I'd forgotten about that. Jon Polito (late of "Homicide") shows up as a P.I. in a familiar-looking purple VW bug. Even Aimee Mann is in one scene, speaking German. Oh, and Tara Reid, before her career completely and utterly collapsed. Top supporting honors go to Sam Elliott, who according to the DVD documentary wasn't even sure what he was doing in the movie, but his opening narration gets funnier every time out ("And in English, too!").

Another great thing is the dialogue. You'd think the whole movie was done by improv, the way the dialogue is so natural. Every character has their own particular jargon, and just like in real life, people keep repeating phrases they've heard elsewhere. Jeff Bridges can't seem to finish a sentence, and neither can Steve Buscemi, although that's because John Goodman won't let him. George Bush gets quoted a lot ("This aggression will not stand, man").

Finally, I love the totally unglamorous portrayal of L.A. and Hollywood, limited to tiny theaters, a seedy bowling alley, a weapons store in the barrio, and the In 'n Out Burger (on Camrose). The actor and artist type characters who show up are all obnoxious or pathetic, particularly David Thewlis's "video artist", and the chubby dancer/landlord who forgoes collecting rent from the Dude so long as the Dude shows up for his performances. Not to mention Karl Hungus and the great Ben Gazarra cameo.

But in the end, Jeff Bridges is the glue holding this movie together... and John Goodman... and John Turturro... and... and... aah! Lost my train of thought here. But... ah, , I've done introduced 'em enough.

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In what has to be the most brilliantly disjointed and anarchic look at the alienation, apathetic stupor, and pedestrian self-absorption of the pathetic Southern California lifestyle ever filmed, the two Coen brothers (`Fargo') produced and directed this near `cult' film to explore the plethora of cultural cop-outs parading as lifestyles in this zany yet affectionate look at a totally burned out and yet eminently likeable basket case by the name of Jeff Lebowski, who is played masterfully by Jeff Bridges, in yet another of his consistently underestimated character portrayals. Lebowski prefers to go by his street name of "Dude", and seems to be the ultimate California case of a one-time fairly intelligent `n'er-do-well' now perpetually down on his luck and reduced to only occasional flashes of clarity and full functioning after way too many years of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, and then some more drugs tossed in on the side.

The Coens' penchant for offbeat characters is having a field day here, with everyone in the cast allowed to vent in a kind of wacko 'Disneyland on the strip' approach to making the endless days of gorgeous LA sunshine pass, as our protagonist finds trouble in the promised land. Particularly memorable here is John Goodman weighing in as the paranoid and unpredictably violent Walter Sobchak, the `Dude's' best friend and perpetual bowling partner. The holy ceremony of bowling and the seriousness that it plays in the lives of the several losers like the Dude, Sobchak, and the preening eccentric Jesus Quintana (a wonderfully over-the-top John Turturro) and the rest of the motley crew on the Dude's team provides a kind of key that unlocks the mystery of their uniformly alienated, pointless, and directionless lives, as each tumbles from crisis to crisis, and with each attempt that Dude makes to cope with the circumstances that mysteriously start to swirl around his drug addled self-absorption and wake him into a groggy yet sober recognition that something very serious and potentially deadly is going on around him, he is repeatedly sabotaged and blind-sided by the myopic and near-psychotic antics of his friends.

Dude seems to approach crisis management as an exercise in spin control, and tries, sometimes quite ingeniously, to talk his way out of the staccato violence that punctuates his days with increasingly urgent frequency. But as the mystery deepens and Lebowski is sucked farther into the quicksand of coincidences, mistaken identities, and sheer madness that lurks just beneath the cover of these friendly skies, we are introduced to the powers and the principalities that are driving the madcap antics and the increasing shrill intensities of everyone but the Dude. The plot often seems disjointed, yet in a macabre way that seems to shout that not only is truth sometimes stranger than fiction, it is sometimes absolutely insane. Yet it eventually resolves itself into a semi-rational resemblance to plausible reality, or at least almost. And one walks way from the outstanding ensemble cast's performance thinking that something magic and allegorical has happened here, and it is perhaps exactly the insanity of the proceeding activity that is the point. They are indeed, every last one of them, just California crazy! This is a wild roller coaster of a film experience, but one absolutely worth the taking. Buckle up, kids, you're in for a bumpy ride! Enjoy!

Honest reviews on The Big Lebowski (Limited Edition) (1998)

Picture and sound quality is a bit improved, but other than that you are spending money on the exact same DVD. Usually, when a "Collector's Edition" is released, especially after a movie gains such a huge cult following like Lebowski has, people actually go through the effort of including cast commentaries, more bonus features, and...well, more than just repackaging the old DVD with a new name, a new cover, and a higher retail price.

Shame on Universal and Focus Features.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Big Lebowski (Limited Edition) (1998)

The Big Lebowski doesn't need a review, so if you're here to read about the film, this won't be helpful. This is a review of the Blu-ray Limited Edition with book.

That being said, this is a very nice edition. The photographs in the book are great and are fun to see behind the scenes action, especially Jeff Bridges' photos. He's a talented photographer utilizing his unique pano camera.

The Blu-ray conversion is clean, crisp and well done. The picture and sound are excellent. The digital copy is a nice plus, but consider that the coupon expires on 12/31/12. Its more than a year away, but its worth noting in case it's something you forget to take advantage of.

However, my biggest complaint is this. The size of the book (which holds the physical disc) is actually just a little larger than standard Blu-ray cases. While this may not be a big deal to most people, if you're like me and have bookshelves fit to the height of a Blu-Ray, this movie can't stand on end. It has to be laid flat, or sideways on the shelf. It's a little thing, but for those with extensive collections on shelves, it can be annoying.

Overall, the Blu-ray edition is a nice step-up for those looking to upgrade their DVD or add it to their collection.