10 Movies To Watch If You Like The Big Lebowski

Despite it being a truly original and unique comedy, there are movies like The Big Lebowski that fans can check out when in the mood for a crime film with some huge laughs. The Big Lebowski came out nearly three decades ago and has cemented its place as a cult classic that, despite its ordinary box office reception, is revisited and worshipped by a large number of devotees. Jeff Bridges gives an iconic performance as The Dude, a middle-aged stoner in California in the early 1990s who finds himself mixed up in a missing person case.

The inimitable nature of The Big Lebowski has, nonetheless, inspired plenty of films, and these are the comedies that best evoke its fatuous absurdity. Many of these movies recreate the fun of a lead character being thrust into an intense and dangerous situation that they are totally ill-equipped to handle. From other Coen Brothers movies to Quentin Tarantino projects to the work of Guy Ritchie, the best movies like The Big Lebowski mix crime grit with hilarious hijinks.

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10

The Nice Guys (2016)

Directed By Shane Black

Shane Black is another filmmaker who enjoys picking apart the noir movie genre, just as the Coens do in The Big Lebowski. Perhaps his funniest film of this kind is The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling as a private investigator and Russell Crowe as an enforcer who reluctantly team up to find a missing girl. Along with the similar case, Gosling seems to be channeling a little of The Dude in her performance as the PI who wanders through the case in bemusement most of the time.

The humor combined with the eccentric setting of Los Angeles, which takes on a life of its own, also achieves an atmosphere similar to that of The Big Lebowski. However, despite the fact that they find themselves in hilarious situations, Gosling and Crowe play men who are more experienced and capable with this sort of thing than The Dude, even if they find themselves in a lot of messes.

9

Bottle Rocket (1996)

Directed By Wes Anderson

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Bottle Rocket

R

Comedy

See more : What Happened to Jason Todd in Titans Season 4? Is Jason Todd in Season 4 of Titans?

Crime

Drama

Release Date

February 21, 1996

Runtime

91 Minutes

Director

Wes Anderson

Writers

Owen Wilson, Wes Anderson

Cast

See All

• 

  Luke Wilson

• 

  Owen Wilson

• 

  Robert Musgrave

• 

  Lumi Cavazos

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Wes Anderson’s first movie is a much more grounded story than he is known for now, but his quirky sense of humor shines through in the crime comedy. Bottle Rocket stars Luke Wilson as Andrew, a young man who has just been released from a mental health facility and is recruited by his wild best friend, Dignan (Owen Wilson), to pull off the perfect heist.

It is most similar to The Big Lebowski in its depiction of the central friendship.

Bottle Rocket similarly takes some unexpected approaches to the crime genre, with it suddenly becoming a charming love story between Andrew and a hotel maid, Inez (Lumi Cavazos). However, it is most similar to The Big Lebowski in its depiction of the central friendship. Much like Walter, Dignan is a loudmouth with self-delusion. There is even a third overlooked friend named Bob who fills the role of Donny in The Big Lebowski.

8

Inherent Vice (2014)

Directed By Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson joins the Coen Brothers on the list of great American filmmakers of all time and they found themselves making similar movies with their own unique voices intact. Inherent Vice is the story of an idle stoner named Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) who sometimes moonlights as a detective, with the latest case being finding the whereabouts of his missing ex-girlfriend. The ”70s-based neo-noir comedy takes some aspects from The Big Lebowski to engage its audience in an electric and hilarious way.

Anderson follows the steps of the Coen Brothers and delivers a hazy and crude reflection of the inherently vicious nature of Los Angeles and its characters. The city appears to force out the deepest instincts and desires of its inhabitants, whether that is the marijuana-fueled worldview of The Dude and Doc, or the not-so-slight vices of the figures they encounter.

7

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Directed By Martin McDonagh

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Sharing a similar scenario with The Big Lebowski in a noir LA, Seven Psychopaths is a psycho-killer comedy that follows Colin Farrell as a writer in search of inspiration. Like The Dude, he finds himself in a hysterical series of events, where he finds what he is looking for and then some. However, when his loose-canon best friend, Billy (Sam Rockwell), kidnaps the beloved dog of a gangster, Marty finds himself in the kind of violent gangster movie he’s trying to write.

It is also a more heartwarming take on the friendship between The Dude and Walter, with Marty aware of Billy’s unhinged behavior but unwilling to abandon his friend.

Directed by Martin McDonagh and with terrific performances by Woody Harrelson and Christopher Walken, Seven Psychopaths is a maniac black comedy that, like The Big Lebowski, pushes the boundaries of its chosen genres and tropes. It is also a more heartwarming take on the friendship between The Dude and Walter, with Marty aware of Billy’s unhinged behavior but unwilling to abandon his friend. The result is a frenzied watch seeing a relaxed dude get trapped in a mad situation that’s spiraling out of his control.

6

Pineapple Express (2008)

Directed By David Gordon Green

The Big Lebowski delivers the ingenious premise of imagining a detective noir movie in which the detective character is a hapless stoner. Similarly, Pineapple Express imagines an ’80s action movie with the heroes being stoners who make things worse rather than save the day. Seth Rogen stars as a process server who witnesses a mob execution and is forced to go on the run alongside his overly friendly weed dealer, played by James Franco.

Like The Big Lebowski, Pineapple Express elevates the so-called stoner comedy genre with a plot and characters that are actually entertaining. While The Big Lebowski focuses more on the sharp writing of the Coen Brothers, Pineapple Express gets a lot of laughs for a more quip-heavy screenplay as well as some great physical comedy from the cast. The indie style of David Gordon Green does infuse the movie with a little of the elevated strangeness of the Coens.

5

Matchstick Men (2003)

Directed By Ridley Scott

Ridley Scott’s inquiry into the black comedy realm produced an overlooked movie in Matchstick Men. Nicolas Cage delivers one of his best performances as a skilled con artist with obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette’s syndrome. His already chaotic life is upended when a young woman, played by Alison Lohman, who claims to be the daughter he never knew that he had.

As in The Big Lebowski, the protagonist has a particular vision of the world that dictates the narrative, and Cage’s overzealous performance elevates the story as a distinct approach to the classic con story. The movie adds to the group of peculiar comedies based in the city of Los Angeles which, by itself, never fails to perform as a character with a life of its own. Just as how The Dude fits into the noir genre, Cage’s Roy is a less confident character than audiences typically see in a con artist movie.

4

Fargo (1996)

Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen

The movie that gave the Coen Brothers their first Oscar is a black comedy crime movie that made it more surprising when the filmmakers followed its success with the irreverent comedy of The Big Lebowski. Fargo follows a family man who hires two low-level criminals to kidnap his wife so that he can split the ransom money. Once the plot is hatched, it gains the attention of a pregnant and friendly Minnesota police officer, played by Frances McDormand in her first Oscar-winning role.

McDormand’s Marge is a much more capable investigator than The Dude proves to be.

Fargo is a darkly comical exploration of the characters’ lives in their honorable but routine police jobs, their mediocre performances as goons, or their miserable middle-class lives. It is the darker ancestor of The Big Lebowski yet still a bizarre and hilarious look in the crime genre. However, McDormand’s Marge is a much more capable investigator than The Dude proves to be.

3

Snatch (2000)

Directed By Guy Ritchie

Even movies outside of the Hollywood filmmaking sphere can deliver movies like The Big Lebowski. Following his breakout movie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie stayed in the world of British crime in Snatch. The movie follows various characters who weave in and out of each other’s stories, all surrounding a priceless diamond.

Brad Pitt’s “One Punch” Mickey O’Neil is the rogue equivalent of the Dude, a goofy and intelligent boxer that likes to fight as much as to bet and drink, and has little concern for the troubles he unleashes with his actions. There are also several characters who find themselves in this dangerous crime world while clearly not being up to the challenge. As in The Big Lebowski, chance is a big element in the development of the story. Snatch is a great crime comedy that results in a breath of fresh air for both the crime and comedy genres.

2

Raising Arizona (1987)

Directed By Joel & Ethan Coen

As seen with Fargo followed by The Big Lebowski, the Coen Brothers have always been willing to keep their fans guessing by switching between dark dramas and wacky comedies. The first hint of this trend came with Raising Arizona, their second movie following the grim noir thriller Blood Simple. Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter star as a couple incapable of having kids of their own. When they discover a local family has had quintuplets, they decide to take one of them for themselves.

While the premise might seem somewhat dark, it is presented like a live-action cartoon. Just as watching The Dude attempting to make sense of this complex kidnapping plot in The Big Lebowski delivers huge laughs, it is endlessly funny watching these outlandish characters bouncing around this zany crime story. The fact that it serves as John Goodman’s first collaboration with the Coen Brothers ahead of his iconic performance in The Big Lebowski also makes it noteworthy.

1

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Directed By Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino’s masterpiece is undoubtedly a ’90s movie that has inspired plenty of films and media, but its style is so particular that it can’t be fully replicated. As in The Big Lebowski, it is placed in a position of admiration and is worshipped by so many. Pulp Fiction is a wild crime saga that follows a variety of characters within the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles in stories that, like The Big Lebowski, have fun playing on the tropes of the genre.

Both movies present their protagonists as antiheroes and the humor with which they handle the difficulties that come their way makes for a big part of the success of the comedy. They are also generally considered the masterworks of their directors, although they are films in which not much actually happens, narratively speaking. This new form of storytelling, in which the plot is secondary, created a big wave in cinema that still flows today. The Big Lebowski and Pulp Fiction remain the directors’ biggest and best works.

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Category: Entertainment