Most unique, most funny comedy I've seen

Rating: 10/10 (19 May 2009)

Possibly the funniest movie I've ever seen. Perfect character development and acting combined with an out-there but flawlessly-interwoven series of plots are the perfect combination for laughs. I can't get enough of this movie, and neither will you.
This story follows three bowling buddies- Lebowski aka "The Dude" (Jeff Bridges), an aging burnout hippie with a carefree, laidback manner; Walter (John Goodman), a large Vietnam War veteran who approaches his daily life and philosophy as if he were still at war; and Donnie (Steve Buschemi), a dimwit follower placed mostly for comic relief. A case of mistaken identity gets the three caught up in the aftermath of a kidnapping, and watching their antics as they try to sort their way through the situation is as funny a thing as I've seen.
I think the beauty in this movie is that there don't have to be any jokes or actual attempts to be funny to produce a laugh. The characters, just by being themselves, make the movie funny. Every scene where they're in the bowling alley talking to each other- there's no joke or attempt at humor, just a burnout, a dimwit, and a gun toter with post-traumatic stress disorder sitting there talking for five minutes, and I die laughing. Heck, there doesn't even have to be dialog! The scene where Lebowski is driving down the road smoking a roach- two minutes go by from start to end without an intelligible word of dialog, and I must have laughed 3 times. Or his reaction to being forced in the limo ("Watch out, there's a beverage here!"). He was being serious, and that by itself made it funny. Just by being themselves, the characters are funny and hence the movie is funny. Well, that and a few well-placed dream sequences!
If you haven't seen this movie, drop what you're doing and run to the video store. You are in for a treat.