20 Comedy Movies You Must See Before You Die

12. The Big Lebowski (1988)

It's never been made entirely clear as to why the Coen Brothers decided to render Raymond Chandler's classic hardboiled novel The Big Sleep as a movie about a modern day stoner on a mission to get back his stolen rug, but whatever; we're super glad that it happened.

The Big Lebowski starts - as with so many Coen Brothers films - with a narration, told legendary-like by the one and only Sam Elliott. Already, audiences are made aware that The Big Lebowski will be a movie unlike any other - all these years later, there still hasn't been anything quite like it. So kudos must go to Jeff Bridges, whose transformative central performance as Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski has entered the pantheon of "cool characters" forever. Props also, of course, to John Goodman and Steve Buscemi (Coen regulars), who play The Dude's best friends - Walter and Donny - beautifully ("Shut the f*ck up, Donny!").

If the point here is that there is no point, then, The Big Lebowski offers up some of the funniest, most bizarre and insanely crazed comedy sequences of the '90s; just remember that you can't appreciate all its offerings in a single viewing.