Hugely entertaining!

Rating: 7/10 (14 December 2006)

Pacifists vs. nihilists comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen is predictably (and amusingly) weird and lively, and so full of comic tension and malice that it is nearly irrelevant the 'plot' (as such) does peter out after the first hour. A bearded, unemployed, pot-smoking holdover from the '60s becomes entangled in corruption after he's hired to be the ransom-courier in a kidnapping. As the Dude, Jeff Bridges gives his all to this loose, shaggy character; the Dude is not just a textbook hipster, slacker or fish out of water, he's a laid-back guy cartoonishly naive of the craziness inherent in this new generation's loss of morals, and he's so generally good-hearted that he's blindsided by violence and craven villainy. The Coens nearly outdo themselves in creating eccentric, mercurial characters, cutting twisty corners with an irony that isn't condescending or too obvious, and their cinematic conception of this material is often dazzling. *** from ****