In-CO-herent Vice.

Could they have mumbled any more unintelligibly? Without subtitles on, i would have been totally lost.

The movie started out alright. I went into it with minimal knowledge of the story and was expecting a more-or-less straight '60s themed detective story with a little humor. It started to get weird at the massage parlor, and really went off the rails when Phoenix sees the giant fang-shaped tower. By the time we got to Martin Short as the weird dentist, we were fully into offbeat parody country.

The humor was a strange blend of 70s' Cheech & Chong and Hunter S. Thompson drug humor and that 1960s-hip Kurt Vonnegut, Joseph Heller, Dr. Strangelove kind of humor with ridiculously named characters and vast, sinister conspiracies hidden behind innocent facades. It felt avant-garde and dated all at the same time.

Benicio Del Toro seems to have been brought in specifically due to his similar role in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". The car scene with Phoenix and Martin Short and the young girl was very similar to a scene in the hippie themed crime film "Cisco Pike" where Kris Kristofferson and Harry Dean Stanton shared a similar drug-addled ride with some groupies.

The highlight of the film for me came near the end, with a deranged, flat-topped Josh Brolin kicking down a door and gobbling up a plate full of marijuana like a starving, pothead cow.

I wasn't really impressed and I doubt I would ever want to see this again. I think it's aimed at people who watch movies while high. The way the plot degenerated into absurdity reminds me of someone who just took drugs and says "It's not working. When's the buzz gonna kick in?" and then suddenly without warning they are stoned out of their mind.

I think I'll give my disc to my wife for her next garage sale or donate it to Goodwill.