The Big Lebowski

The Coen brothers' most eccentric cult hit is back in a new edition. Jeff Bridges is the Dude, bowler and free spirit mistaken for a millionaire (David Huddleston) by a band of German punk nihilists, and John Goodman is his Vietnam vet bowling buddy, who sinks him deeper into trouble with one scheme after another. Think of it as a slacker "The Big Sleep," a shaggy dog parody of classic L.A. detective stories where the passive hero is forced to solve a mystery so everyone will just leave him alone to enjoy his dope and his Dylan. The Coens concoct an absurdist Chandler-esque mystery, drop in a couple of hilarious dream fantasies (including a bowling dream sequence by way of Busby Berkeley, complete with credits), and even bring in a drawling Sam Elliott to narrate this tall tale like a Western myth. Julianne Moore co-stars as an avant-garde artist turned Valkyrie fantasy, and Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ben Gazzara co-star.

The new two-disc edition includes the supplements of the previous "Collector's Edition" (the 28-minute featurette "The Making of The Big Lebowski"; the gag introduction by "Mortimer Young," practitioner of "non-uptight" film preservation; production notes and a gallery of Bridges' photos from the set) along with four new featurettes. "The Dude's Life" and "The Dude Abides: The Big Lebowski Ten Years Later" are a match set of retrospective featurettes with most of the major cast members (but not the Coens) looking back at the film and their part in the production, and it's both smoother and livelier than the old "making of" featurette. Also features a brief survey of the film's dream sequences and a 14-minute portrait of the annual Lebowski Fest excerpted from (the still unreleased) "The Achievers: The Story of the Lebowski Fans."