Dude or Dud? (The Big Lebowski (DVD))

Member Name: fuzzybear

Product:	The Big Lebowski (DVD)
Date:	09/04/08 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some funny scenes

Disadvantages: Lack of character empathy

I have to be honest I was a little disappointed with this film. Usually I like pretty much anything the Cohen brothers direct however I found this film to be a little falt and to lack the cutting edge of their other work.

The main character in the film is Jeff The Dude Lebowski who is played by Jeff Bridges. The Dude is an ageing hippy sort of character whose life is spent walking around in shorts and flip flops, smoking dope, drinking beer and bowling. The film also stars John Goodman as a slightly psychotic friend to The Dude whose obsessions with bowling is actually quite funny. For me the best performance in the film is by the excellent John Turturro who plays a Mexican bowler called Jesus.

The plot centres around The Dude being mistaken for a wealthy individual who has the same name and the action centres around a kidnapping and the delivery of te ransom money which all goes very wrong.

For me the main problem with the film is the disjointed nature of it, I failed to warm to any of the main characters and as such by about half way through the film I no longer really cared what was going to happen in the end. The whole thing comes across as an idea which does not have enough of a plot to make a film from.

As far as Cohen brothers films go this one is rather average

Summary: Not a great Cohen film