The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 207

WEEKEND PREVIEW The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A Friday, March 6, 1998 P7 Coens strike, but sp aringly imam. WL. i us mm 'A By Eleanor Ringel MOVIE CRITIC The Big Leb-owski" is probably the worst movie the Coen brothers have ever made. ny mm ft i I ,4 'A v7 11 Aik 1 i A 7 1 MERRICK MORTON Gramercy Pictures They'd rather be bowling: Jeff Bridges (from left), Steve Buscemi and John Goodman pine for the pins when they get mixed up in extortion, double-dealing, embezzlement, sex and drugs. UNIT! AHTlSTS UNI I CINEMAS I SHANNON CINEMAS S0UTHLAXE CNN CENTER 8 4W8 Jon6boro Rd.

Morrow ma tiivfl. 404-827-4000 tfM-3toSM MAGIC JOHNSON THEATRES Which, given their track record (everything from "Blood Simple" in 1984 to and the other movies out there (everything from "Sphere" to "Blues Brothers doesn't necessarily mean it's all that bad. Still, "Lebowski" is something of a letdown, no matter how much slack you cut it. The idea here is a kind of "what if' goof on Raymond Chandler. As in, what if, instead of a cynical trench-coated Bogart trying to unravel a L.A.

puzzle, our hero was a late-'60s leftover named the Dude (Jeff Bridges) who smokes joints all day, goes grocery shopping in his bathrobe and generally takes a laid-back, keep-on-truckin attitude to everything in life. Everything, that is, except his nightly bowling games with his slightly less wasted pals, Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Busce-mi). The plot kicks in when the Dude, whose real name is Jeff Lebowski, is mistaken for another Jeff Lebowski (David Hud-dleston), a wealthy recluse in a wheelchair whose trophy wife (Tara Reid) has gambling debts all over town. Hired thugs break into the Dude's place and dunk his head in the toilet a few times before they realize they've got the wrong guy. But as a parting shot, one of them pees on his rug.

This, the Dude and his friends decide, demands restitution. So he finds the "big" Lebowski and is soon caught up in a kidnapping scheme involving the aforemen- CAR MIKE MALL CORNERS 8 Acnw from Gwmnerj Phot 770-476-4500 UNITED ARTISTS LENOX SQ. THEATRE 3393PtrwRH.NE 404-233-033B NOW SHOWING! KINGS CINtMAS "1 RCGAL CINEMAS COBB CENTER 8 COVINGTON SQ. 8 2120 Cobb Dm Cowtfcn Hwy Pyx Rd I 770-434-21 20 I 770-593-2600 KINGS CINtMAS AMC THtATRFS MEMORIAL DR. 4 KORTH DEKALB MALL 16 202 Mwnonal Dim I mHi Hwy DruMJHintftt 770-416-9311 i 404-816-4262 MAulC IHtAIHfcSlZ Graenbmt Man i 404-629-QOQQ DFAN7A STARLIGHT fi DRIVE IN AMC THE A1RFS NORTHLAKE FESTIVAL 8 4043 UVBta Rd.

REGAL CINEMAS RIVERDALE 14 138 Taylor Rd. 770-473-9674 'The Big Lebowski" Grade: B- Starringjeff Bridges and ohn Goodman. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Hated for language, brief sex and eccentric violence. At metro theaters.

I hour, 57 minutes. The verdict: Overall, a letdown, but Jeff Bridges is wonderful. ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE cum-bowling champ. But it's Bridges who holds together whatever in the movie can be held together. He gives a wonderfully clever and Uved-in performance that captures the stoner mentality without resorting to the expected Cheech and Chong cheap shots (his wrestling match with a loose lit joint in his car is a classic).

He's a delight and, luckily, he's in almost every scene. But in essence, "The Big Lebowski" is the sort of movie that chews over more than it has bitten off. Die-hard Coen fans defi BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR ROBERT FORSTER tioned wife, the old man's snappish performance artist feminist daughter (Julianne Moore) and some German nihilists with an attack ferret (or maybe it's a marmot). The movie is a scattershot throwaway. But since it's a scattershot throwaway concocted by Joel and Ethan Coen, it can't help but have some amusing moments.

At its best, it's like the best parts of "Raising at its worst, it's like the worst parts of "Raising Arizona" (remember Tex Cobb's biker from Goodman overdoes his role, but it's an overdone role to begin with a guy who breaks into "this isn't why my buddies died in 'Nam" rants at the drop SCREEN ACTORS GUILD NOMINEE BEST ACTRESS PAM GRIER "Truly Joyous Entertainment!" -Andrew Srri, NEW YORK OBSERVER nitely shouldn't be deterred, but if of a hat. Buscemi doesn't have to do much more than hang around, but he does that as only he can. Moore has fun in her brief role and comes closest to capturing the Chandleresque parody. And John Turturro brings his usual explosive energy to the inexplicable role of a Hispanic pederast- all you know of their work is "Fargo," you'd be better off rent ing "Blood Simple" or "Barton Fink" or "Miller's Crossing." Pam Grier Samuel L. Jackson Robert Forster Bridget Fonda Michael Keaton and Robert DeNiro Bridges taking another 1 80-degree turn toft ff 1, adds nyTi (aQuentinIarantinfllm) Ujl Bom: Dec.

4, 1949, in Los Angeles. Family: Son of Dorothy and actor Lloyd Bridges. Actor Beau is his older brother. Married to photographer Susan Geston, whom he met in 1975. Three daughters, ages 12, 14 and 16.

Education: Studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof, two of the great American acting ifflfodKfflwIlBliniMKBiiraBIIIiliBil v' nil iMiDjn tan ano "'v 1 SwilB mm Bin aiiinii raiiii "ii DAVID JAMES Sony He portrayed Barbra Streisand's boyfriend in "The Mirror Has Two Faces." ONttL LfcHJNT O'NtIL AV0NMLE CINEMA II HAMETO STAR CINEMA N.E. PLAZA II NOW SH0W1N 3604 Memorial Drna I3bi RotwvH M. 3M Bulord Hwy. M.i8a. I SOS MGM.

CAHMIKE TOWN CENTER II TOWN CENTER CARMIKC SOUTHLAKEFEST, ISM SotilMaha Pkw 770-WIUO CAKMIKE STN.MTN.FEST. mi RockbrKtft M. 770-449- JfrlS ONEIl OUTLETS MALL 12 37SOVntur Dr. 770 I3 3M CHw 30 UifK.m 2S0S BTownVrfUM th 770-3)9 MM 770-4274001 MM mm www teachers. Oscar nominations: Best supporting actor for "The Last Picture Show" 1 97 1 and "Thunderbolt and Ughtfoot" (1974); best actor for "Starman" (1 984).

Selected movies: "The Last American Hero" (1973); "Against All Odds" (1984); "Jagged Edge" (1985); 'Tucker The Man and His Dream" (1988); "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989); The Fisher King" (1991); and "The Mirror Has Two Faces" 1 996). Staff and news services mwm mmw THE DEFINING ROLE OF DUVALL'S CAREER. SCREEN ACTING TO CHERISH AND REMEMBER." "AMONG THE TEN GREATEST DCDFADM A MfFC (V ATI TIME!" By Eleanor Ringel STAFF WRITER New York Pj eff Bridges has had, oh, maybe five hours jj of sleep. And he still looks like a movie star. What's more, he looks like the kind of movie star who doesn't try to look like a movie star.

The reason for the abbreviated sleep is that his plane from Houston, where he's shooting "Arlington Road" with Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack hit the Big Apple late. About 3:30 a.m. Yet here he is, a few hours later, cheerfully facing the press on behalf of "The Big Lebowski," his new movie directed by the brothers Coen, Joel and Ethan. The script, he says, was completed before the brothers' Oscar-winning "Fargo." But neither he nor co-star John Goodman was available. So the project was shelved, then picked up again last spring.

As Bridges puts it, "Several years ago, they came to me and said, 'We've got a project that's about half through and we're writing it with you in mind. Bridges, a huge fan of everything the Coens have done, going back to the film noirish "Blood Simple" in 1984, was intrigued. And flattered. Then he read the part: the Dude, a laid-back, perpetually stoned, aging hippie with a fondness for white Russians and bowling. "I said to them, 'Why was I the guy for this And they just said, 'Uh, you'd be Bridges laughs.

A hearty, good-natured, irresistible laugh. "I had to admit that the Dude reminded me of the way I was about 30 years ago. It was like they'd read an old Rolling Stone interview with me or something." A formidable resume It's hard to believe, but the boyish Bridges is 43 and has been making movies for almost 30 years. And that's not counting his debut (at 4 months), playing the infant cradled by Jane Greer in "The Company She Keeps." He also made sporadic appearances on dad Lloyd's popular TV series, "Sea Hunt," when he was about 8. But Bridges' real career didn't begin until he was a ripe old 20 and co-starred in Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show." His performance earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor.

He got another three years later for "Thunderbolt and Light-foot," which starred Clint Eastwood. His first and so far only best actor nomination came in 1984 for "Starman." Altogether, Bridges has made about 50 films. He's worked with everyone from John Huston Peter Weir and Frances Ford Coppola to Bar-bra Streisand Mirror Has Two Arnold Schwarzenegger and King Kong (the ill-fated 1976 remake). He's held his own against special effects and Robin Williams Fisher He's romanced Jane Fonda Morning AHnp nnd Kim Basmger 1 Wing played opposite brother Beau in MERRICK MORTON Gramercy Picture "It was a very relaxed set," Jeff Bridges says about making "The Big Lebowski" with Ethan and Joel Coen. "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (the movie about Michelle Pfeiffer and a piano), he was especially curious about how these other brothers, the Coens, would work together.

"I wondered if they would conflict. What their dynamic would be. The biggest disagreement they had was during a fantasy sequence. The Dude is flying through the air and is about to hit some bowling pins. Joel said, 'Make a sour and Ethan said, 'No, be So they shot it both ways.

"It's a very relaxed set," he continues. "And having two guys, you get to take advantage of another brain. You get two layers on every idea." A lead without vanity Bridges, it seems, has about 10 layers to every character he plays. The New Yorker critic Pauline Kael once wrote, "Sometimes, just on his own, Jeff Bridges is enough to make a picture worth seeing. He may be the most natural and least self-conscious screen actor who ever lived." The Coens are equally enthusiastic.

"Jeff experience is formidable," says Ethan, "as is the number of movies he's done. He's capable of doing the leading man thing, but he's also a character actor, He has no leading-man i uuviu imiuu vt rut tu ibi A A A AM (ikib ittni nun mua itmr ui ua umnm sum umi mm km mroaw-cnsTniiai 'VOLCANIC! DUVAli DELIVERS WITH FIERI, GALVANIZING ENERGY." Lust, Obsession, Redemption. Bridges, however, thinks it is vanity. A kind of inverse vanity. Having seen his famous dad permanently typecast under the sea, so to speak, he admits, "I try to mix up my roles.

Hang a 180 from the last thing I did. There's a vain part of me in that I want people to see that I can do it this way and I can do it that way." Bridges also is notorious for his preparation. He went out with bomb squads before making "Blown Away." He hung around a newspaper for "The Jagged Edge." Asked how he got into character for the Dude, he grins and says, "Sense memory. But no, I didn't go out and get stoned. It's hard to sustain a performance that way." It being the '90s, even the whiff of the word "pot" brings up the inevitable P.C.

question: What about playing a lovable character who's stoned most of the movie? "It was a big concern of mine," he says. "I've got three daughters. Two teens, one soon-to-be. So I rolled it over in my mind a lot because I was concerned about kids mine or anyone's seeing a hero doing drugs. "But I also don't want to limit myself by only playing 'good' guys.

I want to play all the different aspects of being human. I mean, in 'The I obviously wasn't promoting people who bury other people alive." Still, he did sit down for a heart-to-heart with his girls. "And you know what they said?" he asks. "They said, 'Iff Dad, it's a 7 ROBERT DUVALL EAPOSTLE in mi HMufiwiii aitiMif.kKfwit.MaH(Wiig ffflmittuw'tHii Ultra i if I I nmviHMi vmiwwi jsm mi: mm ia 1 1 tyi NOW SHOWINGI "Sometimes, just on his own, Jeff Bridges is enough to make a picture worth seeing. He may be the most natural and least self-conscious screen actor who ever lived." PAULINE KAEL Former New Yorker film critic) fMH Hd lloytl 4 Hurt II Ui GWlNNtTT MANSHl CHliSS'Wl 14 ftftlMtff MALL TARA 4.