The Big Lebowski

Fun, clever and engaging. Joel & Eitan Cohen's most iconic creation

'The Big Lebowski' is entertaining.

Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are a fun duo, I even would've enjoyed this 1998 flick more if it was just those two for the whole near 2 hours. Everyone else on the cast is good too, amusing seeing Peter Stormare in a role like this - as opposed to one like John Abruzzi. Speaking of 'Prison Break', Jonathan Krantz is also in this!

The film starts like a house on the fire, I did find the rest of it - particularly the middle portion - a little (emphasis on 'little') less as the story is stretched out a tad, though all in all it gave me a good time and I'd happily rewatch it no doubt.

The “Dude” (Jeff Bridges) just wants to go through life drinking and bowling so is a bit narked when two thugs break into his apartment demanding cash! They’ve got the wrong “Lebowski” but only discover that after they’ve micturated on his rug! Determined to get some recompense, he goes to the correct one (David Huddleston) where he is given short shrift but decides to help himself to one of the many rugs that dot the man’s mansion and he also takes a bit of a shine to his young trophy wife! Days later, he is summoned back by the butler “Brandt” (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and told that she has been kidnapped and that he is to help them deliver $1,000,000 to the felons. He reckons she’s probably behind the crime herself, but agrees - for a fee, and recruits his loud mouthed mate “Walter” (John Goodman) to help out. That’s not all, though! It turns out that there’s yet another “Lebowski” and she’s his daughter “Maude” (Julianne Moore). She’s an energetically enigmatic, quite ruthless, woman who points out that the cash they are proposing to use is actually not her dad’s - and she needs it back. With the scene now set, the capers quickly escalate and no rug is safe! Bridges leads this ensemble cast really well here as the story lurches from one disastrous escapade to another, marrying some witty dialogue with some borderline slapstick and all held together via White Russians and the bowling alley. Moore is also on good form as is the less-is-more performance from an underused but amiable Steve Buscemi as the third wheel on their wagon “Donny”. The plot itself doesn’t really matter, it’s largely incidental to the engaging efforts of all except, maybe, for a Goodman whose constant expletives lose their potency quite quickly as his character becomes a bit too boorish. It is laugh out loud funny at times and as a semi-satirical look at layabout life, wealth and drug crime it’s well worth a look.

Score: 20/10 A Perfect, Unassailable, and Utterly Timeless Masterpiece

Some films are good. Some films are great. And then there is The Big Lebowski a film that transcends criticism, defies genre, and somehow gets better with every single viewing. It is, quite simply, one of the best movies ever made. Watching it 28 years after it was made, and it has lost nothing. Not a single frame, not a single line, not a single moment of Jeff Bridges' magnificent, bathrobe clad bewilderment. It remains as fresh, as funny, and as profoundly itself as the day it was released.

The Plot (Such as It Is):

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) is a man who abides. He is a slacker, a bowler, a lover of White Russians, and a man whose rug really tied the room together. When a case of mistaken identity leads a pair of thugs to urinate on his rug, he seeks restitution from the wealthy, wheelchair bound Big Lebowski (David Huddleston). This sets in motion a labyrinthine plot involving a kidnapped trophy wife (Tara Reid), a nihilistic German pornographer (Peter Stormare), a cowboy narrator (Sam Elliott), and a series of increasingly absurd encounters that somehow feel both random and inevitable.

To describe the plot is to miss the point entirely. The Big Lebowski is not about what happens; it is about the world it creates and the characters who inhabit it. It is a hangout movie, a stoner noir, a comedy of errors, and a profound meditation on nothing and everything all at once.

The One Liners: The Greatest Collection in Movie History

This is where the film achieves its true immortality. The Big Lebowski has the best collection of one liners in movie history. It is not even close. The dialogue, written by the Coen Brothers, is a treasure trove of quotable, endlessly applicable gems:

"Phone's ringing Dude." "The Dude abides." "That rug really tied the room together." "Obviously you're not a golfer." "This aggression will not stand, man." "Calmer th...