Anyone who knows me will tell you that I rarely like comedy films. I'm rather serious in real life, and when I do laugh it's unexpected because I have a rather dark sense of humor. That being said, I busted out laughing many times while watching this movie - something that very few movies make me do (Hot Fuzz and Take the Money and Run come to mind).
The best comedies are usually inhabited by colorful characters, and in this regard The Big Lebowski is pretty fucking ace. The Dude, Walter, Donnie, Mrs. Lebowski, fuckin Jesus...god damn. Each character is unique and fits perfectly. The Dude is basically a mellow, chill
dude who loses his precious rug in a robbery pulled off by a few "amateur" criminals. The rest of the film unfolds as The Dude and his buddies try to reclaim the rug, save a rich guy's daughter, and get paid...all while bowling, smoking, and making me extremely interested in trying a
White Russian. Holy shit that looked good.
Jeff Bridges is a great actor, and really becomes his character here. But while The Dude is indeed awesome, I thought Goodman really stole every scene as Walter. If I had to sit down and list a bunch of hilarious characters from films, he's in the top ten hands down. The portrayal of a Vietnam vet constantly justifying his crazy antics - "am I right?!?!" - was hilarious. Goodman nails every scene.
In fact, nearly every performance is great. Honestly I can't really think of any complaints about the movie, outside of maybe the hallucination scenes went on for a bit too long - but hell, each is entertaining, especially the particularly extravagant one where The Dude is dancing on checkered stairs, and then helps Julianne Moore insert her fingers into a bowling ball in such an erotic manner. Almost got a hard on
This is my first Coen film, so I don't really have a frame of reference to compare styles or anything like that.
9/10
