The Big LebowskiMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 69 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 Iffy for 17+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Austin Chronicle | Marjorie Baumgarten

    It's paved with delightfully irregular and unanticipated bits of business that stimulate the viewer to stay fully alert, while renewing our faith in the sheer joy of watching movies. Read full review

  • 90
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    With their inspired, absurdist taste for weird, peculiar Americana-but a sort of neo-Americana that is entirely invented-the Coens have defined and mastered their own bizarre subgenre. Read full review

  • 80
    Washington Post | Rita Kempley

    The movie is as visually inventive and wildly eccentric as the Coens' earlier movies, but it lacks the emotional maturity and moral clarity of 1996's "Fargo." Read full review

  • 80
    The New York Times | Elvis Mitchell

    Watching it amble along is enough of a treat, since the Coens populate this story with oddballs and bowling balls of such comic variety. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Some may complain The Big Lebowski rushes in all directions and never ends up anywhere. That isn't the film's flaw, but its style. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    Spiked with wonderfully funny sequences and some brilliantly original notions, The Big Lebowski, a pseudo-mystery thriller with a keen eye and ear for societal mores and modern figures of speech, nonetheless adds up to considerably less than the sum of its often scintillating parts. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    Nearly everything in The Big Lebowski is a put-on, but all that leaves you with is the Coens' bizarrely over-deliberate, almost Teutonic form of rib nudging. Read full review

  • 60
    New York Magazine |

    An off-kilter thriller with a sad-sack hero. Read full review

  • 60
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    This film feels completely haphazard, thrown together without much concern for organizing intelligence. Read full review

  • 50
    San Francisco Chronicle | Edward Guthmann

    Although some of its parts are brilliantly executed and played by a terrific cast, the result is scattered, overamplified and unsatisfying. Read full review

View more reviews for The Big Lebowski on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 17+ A wild ride for adults only.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie is inappropriate for kids. The Dude is subject to a lot of violence. One group threatens to cut off his penis, while another threatens him by shoving his face in the toilet. A Malibu police chief hits him with a coffee cup. A woman's toe gets cut off (though not on screen), Walter wields a gun more than once, and Walter, the Dude, and Donny get in a fight with a group of nihilists. Women are most often treated as objects and there's some frontal female nudity. The Dude drinks and smokes pot while driving, and while doing everything else. There's lots of profanity as well.
  • Families can talk about the Dude's lifestyle. Is that something you aspire to? How would you handle a situation of mistaken identity? Would you listen to your friends the way the Dude listens to Walter?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: A story of extortion and embezzlement set to the soundtrack of porn and drugs
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Men threaten to cut off the Dude's penis; fighting between the Dude and some nihilists; a police chief throws a coffee cup at the Dude's head.
  • sex false5 Sex: Some frontal nudity. The Dude and Maude have sex, but it's not graphic.
  • language false5 Language: Constant cursing, especially the f--k and s--t.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: One grocery story is mentioned and pictured several times.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false5 Drinking, drugs and smoking: The Dude drinks and smokes pot while driving, and is constantly making drinks or smoking pot at other times.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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