The Dude Abides! Coen Bros. classic comic salute to THE BIG SLEEP

Rating: 10/10 (13 August 2008)

THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998) **** Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid, Peter Stormare, John Turturro, David Thewlis, Sam Elliott, Ben Gazzara, Jon Polito, Flea, Aimee Mann. Hysterically funny comic noir salute to THE BIG SLEEP from masters of mirth and menace The Coen Brothers gives a wide brush on the genre with one of cinema's greatest characters ever on The Silver Screen, The Dude (Bridges in an unexpected iconic role having a blast and resembling/channeling Warner Bros. Looney Tune Pete Puma; seriously his facial qualities are uncanny), a leftover '60s hippie/radical/slacker who unwittingly is mistaken for the titular LA entrepreneur (Huddleston) in a wild-and-woolly kidnapping scheme by a pack of numbskulled nihilists. Fast and riotously funny and inimitably quotable (i.e. "That rug really tied the room together") with outstandingly out-there performances by Goodman as The Dude's main amigo and bowling partner Walter Sobchak ("I don't bowl on Shabbas"), Buscemi as their dim bud Donny ("You're out of your element Donny!"), Moore as an avante garde artiste, and Turturro as a 'pedarast' sporting foe. So many scenes and quotes to call my favorites but Walter's non-stop rant about Vietnam and showing a dullard teen what happens when you F*** A STRANGER IN THE ASS!! are the tops. The Dude Abides!!!