Rating: 
Summary: Just plain fun
Review: Don't try to read too deeply within the plotline of this movie. Don't try to analize the characters and their relevance. This movie was made to be just plain fun. Jeff Bridges probably gives his best performance since RANCHO DELUXE as The Dude an unemployed ex war demonstrator who happens to excel in the SoCal Bowling league. Even though we never see him roll a ball. John Goodman plays his 'friend' Walter, a war veteran who justifies his every arguement with the fact that he 'watched his buddies die face down in the muck in Vietnam!' He rails against Dude for using the term 'Chinamen' as being politically incorrect, but then goes off about the German bowling scheduler Burkholter. Everythings a wonderful contradiction with this guy. Throw in Walters' poor sidekick Donnie(Steve Buscemi)and you have a completeley inane bowling team of the blind leading the blind.
The storyline is The Dude gets mistaken for Jeffrey Lebowski a wealthy achiever whos wife owes money to smut producer Jackey Treehorn. From this premise we are treated to a plethora of wacky characters...Maude, the Big Lebowskis' sister known for her feministic art; the German punk band AUTOBHAN also known as the belivers of nothing who claim to have kidnapped the Big Lebowskis' wife and are sending body parts until the ransom is paid; and the scene stealing Jesus (John Torturo)a competing bowler who besides being a pederast "can really roll man"; the above mentioned Jackey Treehorn who can mix a mean caucasion and has heard all those kidnapping stories, "so just save it". He just wants the money owed to him by Mrs. Lebowski. This leads to an encounter with the Malibu chief of police and an Eagles playing cab driver. A 'fellow private dick' working for the Knutesens.
Add to this a narrator who shows up a time or two on camera as 'The Stranger'and you can't help but ask 'why?'. Answer: Don't ask.
It's just plain fun.
Rating:
Summary: Beyond China Town...And Even Beyond Pulp Fiction
Review: This is one funny movie....I mean really funny.....as in unforgetabley funny!! This is the finest of all the movies the Cohen Brothers made. Jeff Bridges becomes Jeff Lebowski, a burn-out pot-head from the 70's. His favorite name is The Dude or The Duder or El Duda-Reno if you're not into that whole brevity thing. The Dude is an unemployed, unmotivated and unappologetic loafer who wants nothing more than to bowl, drink White Russians and smoke a jay now and then. The Duder opens the movie by writing out a personal check for sixty-nine cents to pay for a quart of Half & Half. Unfortunately, he gets involved in a kidnapping (due to mistaken identity) that involves nihlists, pornographers, a rich crippl......er......disabled person, a dunce of a kid, and even a beautiful avant-garde artist played by Julianne Moore. Jeffery Lebowski could not have been portrayed by anyone except Jeff Bridges who absolutely nailed the role. John Goodman provides an outstanding supporting role as the funny but believeable character, Walter. In fact the acting from the whole cast is absolutely first rate and the comedic timing is right on. The music ain't bad either. This DVD is heavily discounted despite the fact it's an outstanding movie, a black comedy classic on a par with Pulp Fiction and beyond. I can only hope the low price encourages more people to buy and watch it.
Rating:
Summary: The Dude Abides
Review: This is the definitive comedic installment of genius of our time. Everytime this DVD enters my player, I know that for the next hour and 39 minutes, I will consistently laugh. Not just "oh that's silly" laughter. I'm talking gut-wrenching "Bwah hah haws!" This movie is so ridiculously funny its legions of fans and impersonators don't even do it justice. You know when one of your most non-funny friends is making you laugh just by quoting any line from this movie, that you have a classic on your hands. Parts of this movie will just enter my head for no reason while I'm going about my day and I'll have to physically try getting the images of Walter, Donnie and the Dude out of my head so I can function. I love this movie so much, I may have watched it more than anyother, but when you're partying or alone, and you suggest to anyone: "Should we watch Lebowski?" The return reply is always, most assuredly, a heart-felt "yes." The only hard part is when the film ends...you just want more.
Rating:
Summary: You won't even notice that it makes no sense
Review: WARNING: if rolling on the floor with laughter and being sick to your stomach from laughing so hard is a problem for you, go away. If you're a normal person, you'll love this. So what if there is no story? This would normally be a huge problem for me, but I was laughing to hard to care. John Goodman stars in his best role ever.
Rating:
Summary: Philip Marlowe as a Hippie?
Review: There are two types of Coen brothers movies. There's when the Coens decide to challenge the analytical part of the mind (Barton Fink, Fargo, Miller's Crossing, The Man Who Wasn't There) and there's the lighter side of the Coens (O Brother Where Art Thou, Raizing Arizona, Hudsucker Proxy). This, my friends, is the latter. And in my humble opinion....their funniest movie to date! Yes, this means that I'm ranking it above O Brother (which is, according to Joel C., "the most expensive three stooges movie ever made"). What, you don't agree? Okay, let me put this straight. Well, there's The Dude. And you may not realize it, but he is a private detective in the leanest sense of the word, pure base concept here...but make no mistake, he is a true gumshoe in the likes of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Here he is, just a regular....well, dude. Minding his own business when two hired thugs break into his apartment thinking he's the Big Lebowski (he's not, but he is named Lebowski) and relieve themselves on his rug...a rug that "tied the whole room together." Now he isn't going to sit still for that, not after his good friend played by John Goodman goads him. So he's off to see the Big Lebowski for a replacement rug, but gets caught up in a botched kidnapping and the weirdness ensues. Here the Coens use every cliche in the old detective noir genre. The respected politician (who is corrupt underneath his philanthropic veneer). The local sheriff who disrespects him. The creepy henchmen. The seductive mistress. The humorous sidekick. The odd bit of tragedy. The only things missing are fedoras and trenchcoats. Plus, you get the Coens' hallucinogenic imagery. The "bowling porno" dream sequence should be considered a moment of new Hollywood legend. The nude abstract painting of Maude. The euro-techno freaks and their pet ferret. For a few bucks, the price of a movie and popcorn, treat yourself to a movie you're sure to enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: VERY funny and original
Review: Yeah, the F-word is uttered about 500 times, the lead character is either drinking or smoking grass all the time, and the core plot was probably written on a couple bar napkins at 2:00 a.m. But this is a laugh-out-loud masterpiece, full of both subtle humor and farce/slapstick. To those who are tired of unfunny Hollywood comedies (does the name "Adam Sandler" mean anything to you?), this is a breath of fresh air. Marvelously inventive in its concept and presentation, with dialogue that almost demands that you watch the movies again. The fact that I came of age in the 60s and was a dedicated stoner for a number of years undoubtedly enhanced my appreciation of this flick. But anyone with a taste for over-the-top humor and quirky characters will love it. While Jeff Bridges was quite good, John Goodman's character is the most memorable in recent memory. BTW, after seeing this movie, you'll never be able to think of the drink "white russian" without laughing.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious
Review: The Coen brothers' best film, in my opinion. Bridges is very funny and Goodman is brilliant. I'd give it six stars if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Not much left to say . . .
Review: The sheer Pantheon of reviews that have been written for this DVD should be evidence enough; this film has stirred the laughing apparatuses of many, many reviewers.
Some think there is a brilliant and dormant Cold War analogy to the film . . . Some think there is a brilliant Jesus parody in the film Some think it is a heap of postmodern crap I, for one, love every corner of this film.
--------------> The Big Lebowski is so incredible that my fundamentalist christian parents can see its brilliance even though there are snippets of porn themes in the film, and the F bomb is dropped more than one-hundred times.
Unpious, Unpretentious, sheer brilliance. It's the funniest documentary ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Donnie, shut the #*@% up!
Review: I think a lot of items on Amazon have inflated reviews. I think a lot of people (and I'm including myself) want to rank something with five stars, so that everyone can know how much they love the movie/book/CD/whatever. Well, in this case, I am not exaggerating. The Big Leboski is my favorite movie of all time. The fact that it came out immediately after the Coens' huge success with Fargo kind of gave this flick the kiss of death, but to those of us that didn't care (and I liked Fargo...just not as much as I liked Raising Arizona), this is probably their finest achievement, and probably the best comedy ever. The great thing about this movie is that THERE IS NO PLOT. That's not to say that the movie is aimless, rather the actual story, involving the alleged kidnapping of Bunny Lebowski is the film's "McGuffin." (I think that's how it's spelled). Granted, Hitchcock probably would never dream of making the reason for the characters' interactions a plot device (which begs the question, how can you have a plot device with no plot?), but Hitchcock isn't Joel and Ethan Coen. So, what we have here is a rag-tag group of characters, led in complete Dude fashion, by The Dude himself. Along with Walter, Donnie, Jeff Lebowski ("the REAL Jeffrey Lebowski"), Bunny, Jesus Quintana, Maude, and countless other priceless, though minor characters (all three cops), Dom Irrera's limo driver, Jackie Treehorn, the nihilists, etc, etc, The Dude hobbles his way through easily the most interesting days of his life (though he was a roadie for Metallica on the "Speed of Sound" tour). Anyway, probably the best scene involves Larry Sellers and his father Arthur Digby Sellers (who wrote the bulk of the TV series "Branded"), and it's too funny and relies too heavily on the f-word to repeat here. Sorry for all the rambling. What's important about this movie is the brilliant dialogue. And virtually every character gets to say absolutely brilliant dialogue, from the main characters all the way down to ancillary characters like The Dude's landlord, the cab driver, and the chief of police of Malibu. This movie is chock full of characters, brilliant insights into the world of bowling, and life lessons in nihilism. As long as you're not looking for a story to get lost in, this is absolutely the best you can do in terms of a comedy. I recommend this movie to anyone that has a sense of humor, or to anyone who needs a sense of humor (note to those that need a sense of humor, you might have to watch this a couple of times...I hear some people didn't "get it" the first time). The Dude abides.
Rating:
Summary: The Dude Abides
Review: This is the definitive comedic installment of genius of our time. Everytime this DVD enters my player, I know that for the next hour and 39 minutes, I will consistently laugh. Not just "oh that's silly" laughter. I'm talking gut-wrenching "Bwah hah haws!" This movie is so ridiculously funny its legions of fans and impersonators don't even do it justice. You know when one of your most non-funny friends is making you laugh just by quoting any line from this movie, that you have a classic on your hands. Parts of this movie will just enter my head for no reason while I'm going about my day and I'll have to physically try getting the images of Walter, Donnie and the Dude out of my head so I can function. I love this movie so much, I may have watched it more than anyother, but when you're partying or alone, and you suggest to anyone: "Should we watch Lebowski?" The return reply is always, most assuredly, a heart-felt "yes." The only hard part is when the film ends...you just want more.
|
