1. The title is a clue: The difference between The Big Lebowski and The Big Heat, The Big Chill, The Big Sleep, The Big Easy, The Big Country, etc., is that the other titles arise from context. Ditto The Big Short, which came later. If the Coens had called it The Two Lebowskis, at last it would have had made sense.
2. Weird does not equal funny. All but plotless, it amounts to a series of loose sketches about unusual characters, with the signature Coen Bro's dedication to unusual and/or surrealistic camera work.
3. Witless. Relentless cursing is a crutch for lame writers, so unless you laugh at common expletives, you will find little to laugh at. Including catch-phrases like "The Dude abides," there are zero clever lines.
4. John Goodman's character. One loud grating note in a crew cut and sunglasses, Walter Sobchak is an insult to the eyes, ears, and mind (even his name smacks of desperation for laughs). That he has *any* friends is unfathomable. It's hard to pinpoint his worst aspect, but I think it's saying "Shut up, Donny" to Steve Buscemi over and over and over and over and over... Laughing yet?
5. Pointless. If it isn't funny, and makes no sense, what was the point? The Dude as the sane center of a crazy world? If so, that puts it in a familiar genre: films that present lunatics, schoolchildren, etc., as the sane ones. E.g., One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which at least had structure. Ultimately I decided Lebowski was just a screw-loose script concocted to seduce a self-selecting audience of stoners.
2. Weird does not equal funny. All but plotless, it amounts to a series of loose sketches about unusual characters, with the signature Coen Bro's dedication to unusual and/or surrealistic camera work.
3. Witless. Relentless cursing is a crutch for lame writers, so unless you laugh at common expletives, you will find little to laugh at. Including catch-phrases like "The Dude abides," there are zero clever lines.
4. John Goodman's character. One loud grating note in a crew cut and sunglasses, Walter Sobchak is an insult to the eyes, ears, and mind (even his name smacks of desperation for laughs). That he has *any* friends is unfathomable. It's hard to pinpoint his worst aspect, but I think it's saying "Shut up, Donny" to Steve Buscemi over and over and over and over and over... Laughing yet?
5. Pointless. If it isn't funny, and makes no sense, what was the point? The Dude as the sane center of a crazy world? If so, that puts it in a familiar genre: films that present lunatics, schoolchildren, etc., as the sane ones. E.g., One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which at least had structure. Ultimately I decided Lebowski was just a screw-loose script concocted to seduce a self-selecting audience of stoners.