There is no film around that better explores white Russians and bowling.

Rating: 10/10 (28 January 2003)

The Big Lebowski is frankly a terrific entertaining film. When discussing the Coens and their output usually people jump all over Fargo or O, Brother Where Art Thou?. I cannot fault them for this, as these are great movies. But I have always been drawn to those films that follow the bigger hits. The Big Lebowski wedged between the aforementioned Coen Brothers movies fits quite nicely. The plot doesn't really matter. It assuredly does twist and turn and is incomprehensible at times. As this film is a take on the film detective genre, most notably The Big Sleep which doesn't make sense either, this is extremely acceptable. Take the Bogart character that has all the answers out of the plot and place a burned out broke bowler that loves white Russians in his stead, throw in John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, Juliane Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, and a funny, well-executed story and you have The Big Lebowski. All-in-all, I would say about 3 stars out of four.