more Coen genius

Rating: Null/10 (31 August 2004)

Jeff Bridges is the exquisitely stoned Dude. John Goodman is Walter the crazed Nam veteran. The Coen brothers direct. A fantastic combination

Fargo was always going to be a hard act to follow, but the Coen Brothers succeeded with this off-the-wall bowling comedy turned kidnap thriller.
Bridges is 'The Dude' Lebowski, an aging slacker and ten-pin fanatic who just wants to go bowling (cue the movie's hilarious parrot-cry) but becomes unwittingly caught up in a complex abduction plot purely because he shares his surname with a mobster.
With some frighteningly weird stuff, ranging from lavish dream sequences to Moore naked on a trapeze, this is bizarre but brilliant Coen territory. There is terrific support from Goodman as Bridges' best bowling buddy, a sporadically violent Jewish convert who manages to get him into even deeper trouble with almost no effort whatsoever, Buscemi cast brilliantly against type as their silent friend Donny, and Turturro, whose lycra-suited bowling champ Jesus Quintana positively heists the few scenes in which he appears.