Funny peculiar

Rating: 6/10 (17 April 2004)

'The Big Lebowski' tells an enjoyable shaggy dog tale with Jeff Bridges playing the shaggy dog - slacker dude Lebowski, who gets bizarrely caught up in a kidnapping scam. There are lots of laugh out load moments, but this is a very peculiar film, varying between downbeat black comedy and pure stand-up, interlaced with self-knowing references to numerous different styles of movie making and peppered with a pointlessly astonishing expletive count.The Coen brothers are very clever, but sincerity is never their strong point, and, although it pains me to diss any film with Townes van Zandt on the soundtrack, the net result is rather unaffecting. And it's not that I don't like weird movies; but 'The Big Lebowski' (in defiance of its hero's philosophy) seems to try just a little too hard.