![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.schadenfreude.net\/upload\/2007\/06\/The.Big.Lebowski.1998.Screenshot.2-thumb.jpg\")
The Big Lebowski<\/a><\/em>, from Coen brothers Joel and Ethan, has picked up something of a cult following since its release.\u00a0 Upon my first viewing of the film I did not like it and shrugged it off as one of the Coen brother\u2019s missteps, like The Hudsucker Proxy.\u00a0 However, the film\u2019s reputation has built up and I decided to give it a second chance.\u00a0 Though I was a little easier on the film the second time around, the film is still not a good one, though I do think I may partially understand the film\u2019s appeal.\u00a0 When telling a friend of my continued dislike of the film, he explained to me that it is not as funny to me because I do not smoke weed.\u00a0 As Woody Allen says in Annie Hall, \u201cIf I get laughs from a person who is high it doesn\u2019t count because they\u2019re always laughing.\u201d<\/p>\nJeff Lebowski, known as The Dude (played by Jeff Bridges) lives an uncomplicated life in which he goes bowling, drinks white Russians, and shops in his bathrobe and slippers.\u00a0 He becomes entangled in a kidnapping scheme when some men urinate on his rug by mistake, taking him for the wealthy Lebowski. Things get further complicated by a number of quirky characters including his gung ho Vietnam vet friend and bowling partner, Walter (played by John Goodman).\u00a0 The Dude continues to get himself in deeper as everyone keeps hiring him to do the same thing, find the kidnapped girl and the money.<\/p>\n
The film starts off great with funny dialogue from characters too stupid to realize how stupid they are.\u00a0 However, while we do get wonderful lines like \u201cyou\u2019re out of your element,\u201d the film becomes filled with oddball characters, like Peter Stormare\u2019s German nihilist porn star or Julianne Moore\u2019s vaginally influenced artist, that seem like they stepped out of an SNL skit and suck the comedy right out of the film.\u00a0 John Goodman\u2019s character is an excellent barometer of how the film goes as sometimes he can be funny, but at other times he becomes incredibly annoying.\u00a0 The highlight of the film is a superbly designed and choreographed musical dream straight out of Busby Berkeley.\u00a0 The only fault with this sequence is that it is not long enough.\u00a0 The film has its charms, but is ultimately a mediocre piece of work from great filmmakers who can do much better.\u00a0 With cult films they are usually not great films, but for various reasons have a certain appeal to some people.\u00a0 You may find something about it that appeals to you, but I would hope you do not need to smoke a joint to find it.\u00a0 Otherwise, I would have to say, it doesn\u2019t count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reviewed by Byron Potau.\u00a0 Viewed on DVD. The Big Lebowski, from Coen brothers Joel and Ethan, has picked up something of a cult following since its release.\u00a0 Upon my first viewing of the film I did not like it and shrugged it off as one of the Coen brother\u2019s missteps, like The Hudsucker Proxy.\u00a0 However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dvd","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}