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List Price: $12.98 | | Label: Gramercy Pictures
Salesrank: 4788
Released: October 18, 2005 |
| Our Price: $12.22 |
| Used Price: $7.50 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
After the tight plotting and quirky intensity of Fargo, this casually amusing follow-up from the prolifically inventive Coen (Ethan and Joel) brothers seems like a bit of a lark, and the result was a box-office disappointment. The good news is, The Big Lebowski is every bit a Coen movie, and its lazy plot is part of its laidback charm. After all, how many movies can claim as their hero a pot-bellied, pot-smoking loser named Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who spends most of his time bowling and getting stoned? And where else could you find a hairnetted Latino bowler named Jesus (John Turturro) who sports dazzling purple footgear, or an erotic artist (Julianne Moore) whose creativity consists of covering her naked body in paint, flying through the air in a leather harness, and splatting herself against a giant canvas? Who else but the Coens would think of showing you a camera view from inside the holes of a bowling ball, or an elaborate Busby Berkely-styled musical dream sequence involving a Viking goddess and giant bowling pins? The plot--which finds Lebowski involved in a kidnapping scheme after he's mistaken for a rich guy with the same name--is almost beside the point. What counts here is a steady cascade of hilarious dialogue, great work from Coen regulars John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, and the kind of cinematic ingenuity that puts the Coens in a class all their own. Be sure to watch with snacks in hand, because The Big Lebowski might give you a giddy case of the munchies. --Jeff Shannon
Description of The Big Lebowski (Widescreen Collector's Edition):
After the tight plotting and quirky intensity of Fargo, this casually amusing follow-up from the prolifically inventive Coen (Ethan and Joel) brothers seems like a bit of a lark, and the result was a box-office disappointment. The good news is, The Big Lebowski is every bit a Coen movie, and its lazy plot is part of its laidback charm. After all, how many movies can claim as their hero a pot-bellied, pot-smoking loser named Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) who spends most of his time bowling and getting stoned? And where else could you find a hairnetted Latino bowler named Jesus (John Turturro) who sports dazzling purple footgear, or an erotic artist (Julianne Moore) whose creativity consists of covering her naked body in paint, flying through the air in a leather harness, and splatting herself against a giant canvas? Who else but the Coens would think of showing you a camera view from inside the holes of a bowling ball, or an elaborate Busby Berkely-styled musical dream sequence involving a Viking goddess and giant bowling pins? The plot--which finds Lebowski involved in a kidnapping scheme after he's mistaken for a rich guy with the same name--is almost beside the point. What counts here is a steady cascade of hilarious dialogue, great work from Coen regulars John Goodman and Steve Buscemi, and the kind of cinematic ingenuity that puts the Coens in a class all their own. Be sure to watch with snacks in hand, because The Big Lebowski might give you a giddy case of the munchies. --Jeff Shannon
The Big Lebowski (Widescreen Collector's Edition) Reviews:
Dude.... 
2008-10-08 - Excellent extra's, and the packaging is amazing. Unfortunatley mine arrived a bit crumpled (the plastic square outer shell that is) but that's more to do with international shipping than anything else!
Big Lebowski Means Big Laughs
2008-09-29 - This brilliantly cynical losers saga is absolutely hilarious! With 600+ reviews written already, I won't waste any time going over the absurd plot, ingenious characters or plentiful cameos. I just wanted to add my 2 cents, and my 5 stars, to this riotous 'high-brow' comedy from the Coens.
The 10th anniversary edition has a good selection of extras, including making of features and the like. Also comes with Dolby 5.1, so you can really get lost in those dream sequences. Yeah! Yeah! YEAAAAAAH!
Great DVD set--no scratches (for me, at least)
2008-09-20 - I've heard people complaining about the DVDs in this limted edition set. When I bought mine, there were no scratches on the DVDs. As for getting the DVDs in and out of the cardboard slipcases, I have done so numerous times, and I have not one scratch on the DVDs. Unless I start noticing scratches on them from the case as time goes by, my review still stands.
The Big Disappointment 
2008-09-13 - What are you people who rave about this movie smoking. It simply stunk, and I wasted a buck to rent it (not to mention an hour before I fell asleep). My wife now refuses to let me rent anything. (My last selection was Son of Rambow, so you see why). What the hell - not funny, no plot, and who wants to watch an ugly guy walk around in boxers and an ugly bathroom. Whoever gave this more than 1 star (I wish I could have given it 0) is an idiot! The Coen Brothers have done some good work - Fargo and Old Men, but this one was a dud.
I'm rating the bowling ball special edition DVD, NOT the movie!
2008-09-10 - The Big Lebowski is on my top ten list of all time best films. I've seen A LOT of films by the way. I don't need to explain to anyone why this movie is so brilliant, and why it continues to be a cultural phenomenon. I mention these things first because I don't want people to feel like I'm giving the film one star. If I could I would give the movie 100 stars. What I'm giving such a poor review for is my distaste for movie studios pumping out special editon dvd's every few years because they know a film has a huge following. This new "bowling ball" edition of Lebowski is further proof that Universal has nothing but contempt for the fans of Big Lebowski. They wrap it up in a nice big package and make it look slick, but that's as far as the creativity goes into supplying anything new in terms of extras. Does anyone remember the terrible repackage they gave it a few years ago with a towel and coasters? No actual extras existed, but they still put it out as a revamped "deluxe edition". Well, don't expect much more here.
The only new extras to this edition are four very brief featurettes. They feature new interviews with all of the major players (with the exception of the Coen brothers, of course), but they mostly just sit around and say stuff like, "It's a great film! It's hilarious! Coen Brothers are geniuses!". Err, yeah, we know all of that. It also has a featurette that centers around the Lebowski Fest which is vaguely interesting for a few minutes until it turns into the same old "Lebowski is great!" territory. The featurettes are a snooze fest to say the least.
What really annoyed me with this DVD, though, is that they included the SAME "Making of Big Lebowski" documentary that has been on every release of this film! Not only that, it looks as if it was recorded from an old VHS tape and plastered onto a full screen format. It looks horrible, and what's more, we've all seen it before! How many times is Universal going to pump out the same damn extras to the same audience?? It's an insult to be charged more and more money for the same mediocre extras that were never that good to begin with. Luckily I was able to rent this and didn't actually buy it! "The Big Lebowski" will NEVER have proper extras until the people who created it (the Coen Brothers) are involved. We want a commentary, a full length documentary with in-depth interviews, and deleted scenes (and plenty of them!).
DON'T BUY THIS EDITION. It's junk! Simply keep the edition you already have (the very first edition) safely knowing that you are not missing anything with any other edition!
