What's the Point? It isn't funny

Rating: 1/10 (10 March 2008)

Spoilers ahead.
I frankly do not understand why "The Big Lebowski" has been elevated to the point of being considered one of the best cult classics of all-time. Why this cult around the character of "The Dude", one of the blandest, flavorless, most uninteresting comedy protagonists ever to be put on celluloid? He's simply some dopey hippie who loves to hang around a John Goodman cardboard-cutout Vietnam vet gone loco (real Vets should raise their fists in anger over such an overdone, unfunny, disrespectful and insulting characterization) and a seldomly-seen Steve Buscemi, who doesn't really do much. The plot winds into so many different twists and turns and includes so many supporting characters, all of whom seek The Dude's bag of money, that trying to understand this movie is like trying to untangle the Gordian Knot by hand. What's the point of placing layer upon layer upon layer of weird, uninteresting characters to the point that you forget what the hell this movie is about? Nihilist German rockers? Some sicko Hugh Hefner clone? A gorgeous yet incomprehensible avant-garde artist who wants to have "The Dude's" baby? A strange drugstore cowboy who serves as some sort of Greek chorus? Stop it! "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" had an array of weird characters, but it succeeded because it had a straightforward plot and brilliant acting and writing. The Coen's monstrosity has little wit or signs of superb comic writing, and all of their characters, though weird, are totally boring and flavorless. For weird characters to work, they must act totally off-the-wall and twisted beyond realism. The weirdos in "Lebowski" are actually regular, and seem like a mish-mash of all-too-real rejects from a yuppie coffee bar.
Who likes this stuff? I have just seen "No Country for Old Men", and, like "Lebowski", that was poorly written in terms of a smooth plot; and, like "Lebowski", lacked any interesting characters. I'll give "Fargo" a chance; otherwise, the Coen Brothers ain't reeling me in with their weird, clunky movies.