A fine piece of quality comedy entertainment

Rating: 9/10 (15 July 2007)

"The Big Lebowski" is a hilarious movie. It makes you laugh scene after a scene and that makes it a fine piece of quality comedy. It has a rather bizarre story which sometimes gets a bit silly, but it's still enjoyable all the way through. The story tells about a man named Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski. He is accidentally mistaken for a millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski and this leads him to things he wouldn't want to have experienced. With his bowling buddy Walter's help he tries to get things right but is constantly failed in his tasks, mainly because of Walter's strange personality and anger issues.
The best thing about this film is the characters and the role performances done by the actors. The characters are just great, they're vivid and they all have odd personalities and different ways of interacting. Jeff Bridges plays the character of "The Dude", a total looser who would have preferred bowling instead the things he accidentally mixes up with. Bridges is so real in the role, though the character itself is so surreal, sort of an ignoring person who pretty much defines stupidity. Although Bridges is superb in the role I thought John Goodman was more entertaining in the role of Walter Sobchak. The character of Walter is just so bizarre. He is a Vietnam veteran who constantly deals with his anger issues and thinks he's right when it comes to solving things, yet being pretty much wrong in every case. Trying to help "The Dude" he just makes things worse and doesn't even admit that he's been wrong. I've never really found John Goodman as entertaining as in this movie, so thumbs up for that. There are also other characters worth mentioning; The always enjoyable Steve Buscemi as Theodore Donald 'Donny' Kerabatsos who never seems to be able to speak up his mind as he is always bothered by Walter. Being a bowling buddy of "The Dude" and Walter he still remains as one member of the group and there is some sympathy showed towards him in the end. Julianna Moore is also in a so surreal role, the role of Maude Lebowski who is obsessed with sex, the British daughter of the real millionaire Lebowski. We also see for example Philip Seymor Hoffman and Peter Stormare in one of the roles.
The screenplay's very well written, written by Ethan and Joel Cohen it definitely mixes up everything from the beginning till the end. This what also makes the plot a bit confusing at parts. You really need concentration, as there is constantly this fast dialog between the characters and it's just impossible to know what is important for the plot and what is not. There is just so much fillings in the dialogs that it gets a bit messy. The directing pretty much does the same, directed by Joel Cohen. It can be described from what I described the plot and the dialogs. Being precise, entertaining and swift it also blends up with the story so well, making the whole movie this one big entity where the main theme is never lost. Although it does get a bit confusing it's still that definite quality and you just can't go wrong with that.
"The Big Lebowski" is a good movie, it's nothing phenomenal but it's definitely something worth watching if you don't want to watch something that serious, as it just does include these irrelevant and silly, yet hilarious parts which in their way are simply one crucial part of the movie. You will laugh, if not because of the great jokes or the dialog, then the odd silliness it has inside it. Great characters, superb role performances, a plot that evolves to something you couldn't have imagined and a guaranteed laugh-packed ride. "The Big Lebowski" does what it needs to, it doesn't have to exceed that.