it bears repeating : just because you happen to make an amazing , perfectly-crafted , wildly funny movie ( fargo ) , doesn't mean you can do whatever the hell you want in your follow-up and pass it off as art . the big lebowski is the definitive answer to skeptics like me who wondered if fargo was the fluke , and ho-hum flicks like the hudsucker proxy and raising arizona were more the norm for the coen brothers . they undoubtedly are . in the big lebowski , the coens had the world to play with as a palette . what they delivered is a wreck . the story , what little there is of one , follows jeff " the dude " lebowski ( bridges ) , a bum/amateur bowler who gets caught up in a kidnapping-gone-wrong scheme involving a millionaire who happens to have the same name . promising premise ( even if it sounds familiar . . . ) , but the story is totally blown on one-dimensional goofball characters , blind side plots that go nowhere , and a meandering plotline that barely keeps you awake . sure , with characters like goodman's vietnam vet/wacked-out bowling buddy , moore's new age " vaginal " artist , and , most memorably , john turturro's minuscule role as jesus , the most flamboyant bowler alive , there is plenty to be amused by in the film , and sometimes it's absolutely riotous . but the laughs are hollow . . . because the story just sits there like a 7-10 split . 
