"Obviously, You Don't Golf."

Rating: Null/10 (25 January 2007)

The Coen Brothers have brought me a great deal of joy, especially when I saw Raising Arizona, alone and far away from home in southern California many years ago. They do have the ability to bring me to full-bore, gagging on my own spit laughter. This is what happened one night eight years ago when I saw The Big Lebowski.
TBL is quite simply one of the funniest films I've ever seen. It is also a very strange movie with a story line that indicates sustained drug use and an arrested level of maturity. It is not for everyone.
But for me, this movie caught me in the right mood and at the right time. I needed excellent performances, sharp, loony writing, and a soundtrack so eclectic it defies description.
There are throwaway lines in The Big Lebowski that come close to--and sometimes match--the signature gags from Raising Arizona (my favorite there was Trey Wilson's exasperated description of his missing son's clothing to an FBI agent, "I don't know (what he had on)--he had Yoda's and s___ on him!" Here, when Jeff Bridges is offered oral sex by Tara Reid for $1,000, and he starts to move away from the camera, someone asks him where he's going. His response, "I'm going to look for a cash machine." I'm dumb enough that lines like that and movies like The Big Lebowski catch me by surprise.
And cause me to start hacking spit from laughing.