Ten years later, the Coen brothers would be winning Academy Awards. But in 1998, they made a movie that still shows up at midnight screenings, and has a solid place in the heart of a certain kind of movie fan.

It's loosely based on the idea of dropping a '70s stoner-throwback into a Raymond Chandler novel; let's call it hippie noir. It's also a long overdue ode to bowling.

The accidental private eye is Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges), known simply as "the Dude," who gets dragged into the story…