The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • Page 65

THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER FRIDAY MARCH 6 1998 RuSVIES The COMedY ZONE 568-HAHA is Coen biggest joke yet on the audience THIS WEEKEND! in Charlotte Brian Regan Mar 6 th thru Mar 8th 1996 Comedian of the Year This show is Rated BACK BY A POPULAR DEMAND MARCH 1 8-2 LENNY SCHULTZ Laugh-In MARCH 25-29 TOM McGILLEN Impressionist APRIL 3-4 (2 Nights Only) AMAZING JONATHAN Lounge Lizards" on Comedy Central isit Our Other Location THE BIG LEBOWSKI GRADE: STARS: Jeff Bridges John Goodman Julianne Moore WRITERS-DIRECTOR-PRODUCER: The Coen brothers RATING: Tarantino-esque profanity brief sex and nudity brief violence RUNNING TIME: 117 minutes IN CHARLOTTE Eakeinorman COMEDViZON actly the same shallow story true of private eye the effete videographer played by David Thewlis even the cowboy-hatted narrator played by Sam Elliott who drifts in and out like a sagebrush angel especially true of the dream sequences which include a Busby Berkeley-like dance number for chorus girls wearing bowling-pin headdresses Before this the movies had some point of view no matter how obliquely or glibly expressed Big plays as if David Lynch wrote a script so ambiguous it was meaningless then let the Coens punch it up with gags That makes for a world like to visit briefly not one where I want to live for two hours Ritch Shydner Mar 13th -Mar 15th Tonight Show HBO This show is Rated PG But the point? Sure John Turturro is hilarious as a bowler named Jesus who wears a purple jumpsuit a hair net and fingernail polish and who licks his alley-begrimed ball before rolling it Yet if you cut his two brief scenes out of the picture be left with ex- cfYHii Cdft Full Dinner Menu 535-1119 Little MWf Karaoke Nightly Drink Specials £3 17iEtlndependencelBlvdfibehindFriday! as HommiK r25CONSOUDTEDr A (HE STONE GROUP HUSH 1:10 3 30 5 40 8 00 10:15 AriwivUim diUMS THE WED0ING SINGER (Hi) 1:00 3 10 5 20 7:40 9:50 THE BORROWERS (I Tii 12:30 240 4:50 KRIPPENDORF'S TRIBE 12:50 3:00 5:10 7:25 935 FEATURING STADIUM Ui MARSHALS ilij it 1:00 4:00 7 00 10:00 PARK CITY HO 1 2 40 3 00 5 30 8 00 10:15 6 CHANNEL OTS DIGITAL? KISSING A FOOL HO 7:10 9 20 6 CHANNEL DTS DIGITAL! THE BIG LEBOWSKI HO 2 00 4 40 7:30 10:10 AS GOOD AS IT GETS iHHMj 1:10 4:10 7 00 9 50 GOODWILL HUNTIH6 ilii 1 20 4 00 7 20 10 05 TITANIC iJTilfr 1230 4 25 8:15 DIGITAL! TWILIGHTS 50 3 00 5 10 7 20 9 30 DIGITAL! 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By LAWRENCE TOPPMAN Movie Writer The Coen brothers bear the same relation to Hollywood as Pluto does to our sun They circle it from a great distance and their cold little world occasionally comes a little closer to the center or sails into a more removed orbit never been farther into outer space than in Big Fans (myself included) may cackle at absurd situations and in-jokes But director Joel and producer Ethan who write together have never made so much clamorous ado about nothing Most of their movies are simultaneously tributes to and parodies of a genre: gangster flicks in 1930s screwball comedies in Hudsucker may be a loose homage to Raymond detective novels set in Southern California among lowlifes and rich people and involves a kidnapping of a beautiful woman which like everything else in the film amounts to nothing (Chandler would never have stooped to that) even an irrelevant incident in which a private eye (Jon Polito) pops out of a car to beard Jeff Lebowski in the street and offers to share information with him Of course Lebowski have any which is the cosmic joke at the tiny heart of the film Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) an unemployed pothead called The Dude is awakened one night by two thugs who stick his head in a toilet whiz on his rug and demand the million dollars his wife owes a pomographer (Ben Gazzara) Since not married he decides these morons mean the other Jeff Lebowski (David Huddleston) a millionaire married to a bimbo Dude figures the thugs would have left him alone had the big Lebowski paid his gambling debts He visits the rich man to demand a rug The plutocrat surprises Dude with bad news: A gang of nihilists has kidnapped the wife in question He offers Dude a percentage of the ransom money if get the woman back safely The Coens summon up a gallery of grotesques the head of the nihilist gang a former German techno-rocker (Peter Stormare) Walter (John Goodman) a deranged Vietnam vet with a thing about personal liberty Maude (Ju-lianne Moore) who makes modem art by sailing naked through the air on a harness and splattering paint on a canvas below This must be the only film in history where Steve Buscemi who plays a sad-sack bowler is the most normal person THE WE0DIN6 SINGER rMIu 1 20 3 30 5 40 750 10 05 Pliillijtf I'kutTSMS tWOWEHSrdFSOUTHPMW -W-MOVtf KRIPPENDORF'S TRIBE rYiJU 1-00 3 10 5-20 7 30 940 As 6000 AS IT GETS i) 1-0Q4-10 7:15 10 05 EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT! 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A FRESH SCREAMINGLY FUNNY FLASHBACK RSVP TO WEDDING ltal VCMWi HABCMMKUf adam drew sandier barrymore IS A MIST-SEE for fans who kite great acting and a super turn uc-n MIGHT WiliiSKiOIln Mil BIN if III 11C1IG IS SIMCA110 ESP0SII1 Br EMEH BEHNSTEIN MICIAEi HAUSMAN I sounbtiaci aibuu avaiubu on idel-amirica rams PG-13 FfEsf HUH STARTS TODAY! NOW SHOWING! EASTERN FEDERAL EASTERN FFOrRAI MOVIES AT THE LAKE II MOVIES AT SARDIS 1-77 Exit 28 Conwhus I Monro Rd at Sonia 892 3841 JL 847-2024 EASTERN FEDERAL 1 MOVIES AT SARDIS I Monro Rd at Sard I Jl 947 2024 EA5TTRN HBIRAL 1 DELTA 6 6900 WT Hams BM) Ettt 532 9117 EASTERN FEDERAL MOVIES AT THE LAKE 1-77 Exit 28 CorntbM 692 3641 Watch the Academy Awards March 23.