Review of The Big Lebowski (1998) by Ethan J — 09 Jun 2017

'THE BIG LEBOWSKI' was directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and stars Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Julian Moore. When 'The Dude'(Jeff Bridges) is mistaken for Jeffrey Lebowski(David Huddleston), his life becomes a lot more complicated than before.

Word of Advice: watch this movie while intoxicated. I watched it while sober and still enjoyed it immensely but I guarantee that watching this movie while off your head will improve it. That said, this is a very enjoyable comedy. Jeff Bridges shines bright as 'The Dude' with an excellent cast, including John Goodman and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, also providing great performances and being the potatoes to this meat and potato pie. The comedy is pretty good and I'll definitely say that more jokes hit than they do fail. That said, I won't say that many jokes in this movie are hysterically funny; I chuckled a lot but I only full on laughed out loud maybe 2 or 3 times. That isn't a massive gripe but it's something I though I should mention.

My main gripe with this movie is that being intoxicated is probably the best way to see it, and that is not a major gripe at all. The story is pretty basic but works well for what it is attempting to do. Despite this, they set up a lot of character and story arcs that go NOWHERE which was really annoying. That is my second major flaw with this movie. It sets up interesting characters like Jesus and even Donnie but then ignores them or even completely forgets them for the majority of the plot. I would rather the characters not be in the movie, than have them in it for only a minuscule amount of time. The ending(which I love by the way) is very open and allows a lot more possibilities for sequels where they could have explored these characters more and gave them more depth instead of cramming them all into this one movie.

Even with these flaws, the movie is very damn enjoyable. Its incredible, colourful, imaginative characters really drive the movie and they are what makes this movie shine. That is why I wanted more time going to some of the supporting roles. A lot of effort was clearly put into these characters and I wish they got more screen time to bloom.

It's a very technically proficient movie; the cinematography is pretty good. The set and costume design is great. I have no real flaws with this movie as far as sets and camera-work goes. Maybe a few changes to character and set design but I can't say it was anything that really hindered my enjoyment.

All in all, this movie is very enjoyable sober(and I imagine even more so while on something) therefor I do recommend this movie to anyone, so long as you're prepared to possibly have a breakdown during a few sequences of this movie. It's a very enjoyable movie, and I'll rate it 8 rugs out of 10.