A Humorous Dark Coen Brothers Film

Rating: 7/10 (23 August 2015)

Today I saw "The Big Lebowski" for the first time. Somehow I missed this movie in 1998 and never saw it on DVD in the years after its release. About the only thing that I knew about the film was that Jeff Bridges was "The Dude". Now I know the rest of the story.
Before moving on, I'll offer up this quick disclaimer: This is in no way a family friendly film. That should be expected from the Coen Brothers, but since I went into it not knowing what to expect at all, and my only perception of the film being that it was mostly a comedy, I thought that it might be somewhat lighter than most of the Coens' stable of films. And it was. But there's still language throughout the movie, along with some fairly adult themes at points. Several times along the way I found myself feeling that this was the Coens' answer to "Pulp Fiction" (the chasing of the brief case, the remark about the quality of the In-n-Out Burger, the fact that Bridges dresses like Travolta and Jackson at the end of PF, etc.).
The film is quite funny, in that dark style of humor that the Coens are known for. Sometimes the humor is so prevalent that it becomes banal. Nevertheless the film does feature quite a few good laughs. But then mixed in with those laughs are the odd Coen Brothers moments, such as what I'll call "the ear scene", in which the mixture of humor and horror blends in a way that challenges the viewer's comfort.
My main beef with this film is that it doesn't end with a resolution. Yes, all ends well (Spoiler alert, but "The Dude Abides"). Still, you never find out what happens to the briefcase or whether it had money in it (another similarity to Pulp Fiction). The situation with Bunny sort of gets forgotten, too. All in all the ending of the film just felt anticlimactic to me.
I nevertheless did enjoy the movie, though. It is what it is, a Coen Brothers film that makes you laugh all while pushing boundaries. Still just as there are Elvis people and Beatles people, I think that there are Coen Bros. people and Tarrantino people, and I'm a Tarrantino person. So I think I'm going to go with 7/10 stars. Enjoyed it, but not in my top tier.