Rating: 
Summary: I'm Calmer than you are, dude
Review: This is nearly the most hilarious movie ever, and one of my favorites. It is so bizarre, and filled with twists in the plot, you have to watch it twice in a row to appreciate it all. The best part is the funny situational dialague, that is so true to every one of the very well developed and thought out characters. Every character is completely hysterical in their own very different way, and I can hardly watch the scenes with Walter (Goodman) without wetting myself. Every person in this film gives a great performance, and Kudos to the Coen brothers for another masterpiece. Am I wrong?.....Am I wrong?
Rating: 
Summary: pretty funny
Review: The Coen Brothers' Big Lebowski's tongue-in-cheek humor is very entertaining with superb casting especially since some of the roles (like Goodman's and Buscemi's) were written specifically for the actors. John Goodman is hilarious in his role as a trigger-happy veteran who throws Jeff Bridges' laidback (i.e. stoned) life out of control. It all begins when Bridges, whose character's name is Jeff Lebowski but prefers to be called 'Dude', gets mistaken for a millionaire of the same name in Pasadena. A pair of thugs ruin 'the Dude's' rug 'that tied the room together' and on Goodman's insistence Bridges tracks down the "Big Lebowski" to get compensated. From there the plot gets more and more complicated in strange/humorous ways. Some of the minor characters include Steve Buscemi as the third wheel of the Bridges/Goodman duo to Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers as one of the German kidnappers. John Turturro almost steals the show as the child-molesting, hair-net wearing, bowling ball tonguing competitor. Julianne Moore is very good as the feminist artist who paints nude in a flying harness and is also in the excellent Busby Berkley sequence as a viking woman complete with duo braids and elaborate dancing showgirls wearing bowling ball pins. The DVD has a well-designed menu in the theme of the bowling alley with the cheesy neon stars and lights. There are bios of the main actors including John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi, John Turturro, and Sam Elliott (the cowboy stranger), as well as their filmographies. The special features don't include any deleted scenes but does have trailers and an informative "Making of" with the Coen Brothers. There are subtitles for English, French, and Spanish but no dubs. I noticed that the copy I had is slightly off in one scene in the audio and video sychronization towards the second half of the movie. The actors' mouths are moving and the dialogue follows a half-second behind, but it's only the one scene and I don't know if all the DVD pressings are like this. The DVD features auto-play but first asks if you want to view it in the wide-screen or regular format which is nice. If you enjoy tongue-in-cheek humor, detective motif films or the Coen Brothers films, I would get this DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Shut the fvck up, Donny.
Review: I just found out that bowling and haiku don't mix. But at least I tried.
Rating:
Summary: He's a nihilist....That must be exhausting
Review: I consider this to be the perfect type of movie to own, because, unlike most movies, it gets better with multiple viewings. It is, first of all, very funny, and it's tough to catch all the jokes on the first viewing. Secondly, the plot is fairly complex and possibly difficult to follow in the first viewing. Still, this movie is entertaining mostly due to the humor and characters, not the plot. It is not a profound movie, and I wouldn't look deep to find any messages it might convey. It is just very funny, with countless memorable lines. The only thing I didn't like was the cowboy narrator. I thought his dialogue at the end about the significance of "The Dude" was unnecessary and a bit forced.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful.
Review: When I try to think of the worst films I've ever watched, a lot of titles could crowd my mind: Stigmata, Godzilla, Lost in Space, Forrest Gump, the last four Jerry Bruckheimer movies, and so on. But movies like these are bad simply beacuse they are forgettably bad. The Big Lebowski is always there in my mind because it is unforgettably bad. Pointlessly set during the Gulf War (the war never features in it after this) the story is about a Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who is mistaken for another guy called Lebowski whose daughter has been kidnapped. Bridges gets Goodman involved, and various supposedly colourful characters drift by, until the mystery basically solves itself, with no involvement from the protagonists. Sam Elliot appears at the conclusion to spout some bewildering nonsense that's meant to tack an explanation onto the end. Deep. Some movies are plotless and entertaining: this one is plotless and pointless. I guess John Goodman plays a hilarious character because he keeps saying things like 'They peed on your f***ing rug man' and 'Shut the f*** up Donny' (the film's killer line - we know this because it's repeated endlessly). And this is part of the problem: the characters are so self-consciously 'quirky' and off-the-wall that none of them work. It's just the Coens realising what their target market is like and deciding to go into overkill. Even amid all this wilful, random eccentricity they can't find any originality. For example: the main character is an ex-hippy still living in the 60s, and what do they decide to call him? The Dude. If you find pointless vulgarity and violence entertaining (at one point Goodman chews a guy's ear off and spits it in the air - always a good scene to have in a comedy) then this is your movie. But for me, this movie fails a simple test: a comedy should be funny at least once. Empire magazine (whose contributions to film criticism have included such surveys as 'Toilets in the Movies' and 'Masturbation in the Movies') concluded their review of this film with the statement: 'In a perfect world all movies would be made by the Coen brothers'. Good taste on all three counts there.
Rating:
Summary: "Is this your homework, Larry?"
Review: Best film of the 90's. Period.
Rating:
Summary: Mark it ZERO, Dude!
Review: Coens' most visually creative film to date, this little opus has everything: cerebral writing, and remarkable filmography. Its' DVD is fabulous.
Rating:
Summary: Please make sequel
Review: If the movie were a car it would be a finely crafted Rolls-Royce. More technically it is a very efficient film: I couldn't identify a single boring or irrelevant minute. The casting is superb: Jeff Bridges down-at-heels bum is in perfect contrast to John Goodman's up-tight Vietnam veteran with Steve Buscemi perfectly in between. The constellation colourful and entertaining characters is another feature of the film: the Dude's wierd landlord (into strange amateur dance routines), the militant feminist played by Juliana Moore, the sycophantic personal assistant played by whatshisname Hoffman (played George in Scent of a woman, the gang of nihilists, the porn king, the bimbo kidnapee and - topping them all - the sexually perverted bowler player called (blasphemically) Jesus. If these characters didn't even interact - I mean if there was not plot at all to the movie - it would still be fun to watch them from hours on end just doing everyday things. As it is the plot is rather good. Most importantly at the end of the film it becomes known that the Dude will become a father. This is good news because it creates a good foundation for a sequel (the "Little Lebowski", perhaps). The characters and humour of this film are so brilliant that it would be a sad waste if they were confined to just one film.
Rating:
Summary: Well, that's just, like, your opinion, man...
Review: This is definitely a movie to won on DVD, because unlike most movies it benefits from multiple viewings. The humor, the poignancy and the meaning behind the film becomes more apparent the more times you watch this film, if only because of it's attention to detail in characterization and it's intricate and brilliant script. Following along the lines of other bumbling detective yarns like Charles Bukowski's "Pulp" and Jon Hammer's graphic novel "The Drowned Girl", this story revolves around the circumstances that throw Jeff Bridge's laconic "Dude" in the middle of a bizzare kidnapping and ransom case. As the plot unwinds, the central mystery of the the kidnapping becomes unimportant; one's attention is drawn to the strange cast of characters who float effortlessly in and out of the Dude's life as he gets more an mroe wrapped up. Essentially a flawless film, without the awkward and grim brutality of a film like "Fargo". For some reason this movie is often overlooked when talking about great films of the 90's, or even great films of the Coen brothers! Like the equally brilliant "Hudsucker Proxy", a brilliant film that defies categorization but is absorbing and amusing.
Rating:
Summary: The Dude Abides
Review: This is quite possibly my favorite film. I must admit that I'm a little biased since I am a huge fan of the Coen brothers films. But it is probably the most amusing film I've ever seen. I've seen it several times now, and it seems to get funnier every time. With great dialogue and the usual wacky characters, the Joel and Ethan have made another great film. The interview with the Coens that is included on this disc is also informative but I wish the Coens will do a full audio commentary for one of their films in the future.
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