The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 145

HutHHri'tr))! Yi't r'i -V eYf r' t't IT mMFrrWMltlMlFrlMVFTlwvnWa Shaggy-clog caper by the Coens I "JUL 1 INCUWNM 1 JJ'I'H'it'M'IH REGAL CINEMAS HlllirllVillllil EObMONT SQUARE 10 GCC FRANKLIN MILLS BemrttOgmonlSq SHwngCB. MALL 14 Newtoan Square NOV Green entrance at me Franklin Mills Mai CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORY, vie (Msim Stan Hi 11 hm fta Immi Cohorts in "The Big Lebowski" are (from left) Jeff Bridges, Steve Buscemi and John Goodman. Two Thumbs Op -StSKEL EBERT Hysterically Two dim bowling buddies bedeviled by complications to spare. By Carrie Rickey INQUIRER MOVIE CRITIC The Big Lebowski, hallucinatory slapstick from Ethan and Joel Coen, stars Jeff Bridges and John Goodman as '60s casualties living in '90s Los Angeles. It is a funny picture, in both the ha-ha and peculiar senses.

And if it is not as fully fledged as Raising Arizona and Fargo, this is because the Coen Brothers set such high standards for their edgy comedies. Jeff Lebowski, a.k.a. the Dude (Bridges), a laid-back radical, and Walter (Goodman), an overwound Vietnam vet, are devoted to bowling and each other. Nothing comes between them and their bowling balls. Nothing, that is, until some thugs break into the Dude's ramshackle bungalow and, mistaking him for millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski, who lives in Pasadena, demand money he does not possess.

A simple case of mistaken identity, right? Not if you're the Dude, a pothead too stoned to see straight. And not if you're Walter, who sees conspiracy where others see coincidence. The Dude and Walter are simpletons who complicate things: They have an uncanny instinct for finding the longest possible distance between two points. So when the Big Lebowski (David Huddleston), a millionaire whose pom-princess wife has been kidnapped, hires the Dude to deliver the ransom money, you can bet that the Dude will take the scenic route. And that every lug, mug and pug in Southern California will be on hand to show his sinister face.

A shaggy-dog story told with the surreal lucidity of an acid flashback, The Big Lebowski doesn't exactly have a point. The film shares with certain Raymond Chandler mysteries and Zen philosophy the belief that the jour- Mm Of IflllT 1 I Iff I AfA Review: Film THE BIG LEBOWSKI V2 Produced by Ethan Coen, directed by Joel Coen, written by Joel and Ethan Coen, photography by Roger Deakins, music by Carter Burwell, distributed by Gramercy Pictures. Running time: 1:59 The Dude Jeff Bridges Walter Sobchak John Goodman Maude Lebowski Julianne Moore Donny Steve Buscemi The Big Lebowski David Huddleston Smokey Jimmie Dale Gilmore Parent's guide: (nudity, violence, drugs, profanity) Showing at area theaters 4 -turn Wonayna. USA Tdmt bKids Are Gonna Love It! MM Brown, VWFtVWNUV-TV BufMMf actually a human bowling ball rolled by bigger players using him to knock down the obstacles in their way. When the Dude smashes down these tenpin roadblocks, he doesn't get a concussion.

He gets quasi-erotic dreams. One is set to the tune of Kenny Rogers' "Just Dropped in (to See What Condition My Condition Was in)" in which he slides through the open legs of a chorus line of Busby Berkeley-type dancers wearing tenpin headdresses to dance a duet with a Wagnerian Valkyrie wearing a breastplate of gilded bowling balls. It's a curious vision of bowling as kinky, sadomasochistic sex. Or is it vice versa? For those who enjoy the non se-quiturs common to Cheech Chong comedies and Raymond Chandler mysteries, The Big Lebowski is a hoot. For those of a more serious warp, the film is a lexicon of postmodernism, a textbook example of recontextualiz-ing earlier styles, what with its '60s casualties driving 70s cars and enjoying '50s pleasures in the '90s.

In other words, this is not a movie for those who demand narrative thrust and coherence, although even they will be startled by the contrast between Bridges' teddy-bear affability and Goodman's corrosive hostility. mwwfh III Special Effects! ,1 1 "Parents Will Love It As IVIich As The Kids. John Goodman ney is more important than the destination. The Dude, played by Bridges in consummate space-cowboy fashion, lives very much in the now. The idea that the Other Lebowski or his stepdaughter, Maude (Julianne Moore, as a conceptual artist who's a cross between Yoko Ono and Katharine Hepburn), might be using him for their own selfish ends is unthinkable to a guy whose mind is pretty much untouched by thought.

The Dude imagines himself a skillful bowler. This buffoon is too stoned to recognize that he's Jim Broadbent Hie Their space is in your place! flfailBIHiiliflfa lBIDlBHlilinilllU 1MU Art Films 'Michael Collins' a mirror of Irish struggle IHTIUim wimunmiyriiniiiriTiiiiii BiiiiimiKniii ii Will anisiift KIWI IH Ml mnrTmimiiin -i HllliM iftfflll nr rww. the -borrowers aotrt By Desmond Ryan UNITED ARTISTS THEATRE AT AlVtRVlf PLAZA INQUIRER MOVIE CRITIC Ufi-'i-wwi'in UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES MAIN STREET 0 320- 40 Mai SUM. Mamvu UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES MONTGOMERVVILLE McrngonwwNt UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES AT OXFORD VALLEY MatotiMr tta MtaLtnltoBit uring the war for Ireland's independence that he commanded so brilliantly, the elusive Michael Collins was REGAL CINEMAS EOGMONT SQUARE 10 8fUdpTOKSa SrcotvigClt Nawtunnsguife REGAL CINEMAS HUNTINGDON ALLEY 14 Coulir jrc Horn le Hoc REGAL CMEMAS LIOMVR.LE 12 REGAL CNEMAS PITMUDH MEETING 10 WniWgettM Consrcrnxxen UNITED ARTBT5 THEATRES AT CHELTENHAM SQUARE uwem a mimifutui UNITED ARTSTS THEATRES KING 4 QUEEN lyMNnntay fa an Raffl2 King dPutaa AMC MILLSIDE 4 ftxnalSO MNornl snmsaunUMt Dam ATM MULTIPLEX CINEMAS WnKHnse? Ifc 30a fi ONEMARK MOVIES II uons MeM ta Sometoa REGAL CINEMAS BURLINGTON 14 borne, taMwd REGAL CMEMAS CROSS KEYS 12 Bacia.WlRI 421 Amancr Ltwl lumamia TIT0N 6 Trw tuning CM TflonRoH Hurnaio UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES PENNSAUKEN ltMRAliOimaan phy is the perfect prelude to St. Patrick's Day, since Collins' short and tumultuous life embodied so many of the contradictions of modern Irish history.

One of the signal achievements of Michael Collins is that it allows us to see with new clarity the past that has shaped the troubled present in Ireland. Neeson, in a reading on a par with his performance in Schindler's List, gives an honest and perceptive portrait of Collins, who led the campaign to oust the British only to be assassinated in 1922 in the bloody civil war that folowed the signing of a peace treaty. Michael Collins is both a rousing adventure and a thoughtful consideration of the moral ambiguities posed by the idea of a just war and the means necessary to achieve an end. And those are difficult issues not limited to Ire-See FILMS on Page 13 named "The Man They Couldn't AAKANDORRAI tagi ax rtanty Actus UK Gfuunrc RUN I Or tuwmt ma MC kUflPU 10 HluVllltfUScraMI Hum CnmM 3txprq Ct AMC UCTFR'S CROSSING I Htm I Cfoanng Sropng am QCC FRANKLM MLLS MALL OwnM FfinttnlMsMaI UNITED ARTISTS THEATRES AI HTH STREET SiuriliersnMf IbnvOidiv iKiHiHiea AMC DEPTF0HDI OnDamenisiaKlgeHd aotit lomnOirltaraMat AMCMARLT0NI JuNrrtiHou1e3 Mafflon Catch" by his admiring countrymen. Two years ago, Neil Jordan and Liam Neeson captured him to perfection in Michael Collins.

Jordan's epic and astute biogra- THE PHILADEJ JHIA INQUIRER.