The Big Lebowski's Forgotten Sequel Scored Just 20% On Rotten Tomatoes

"The Big Lebowski" is a Coen Brothers classic that's full of amazing quotable moments and centers on one of the most lovable and coolest characters in cinema history: Jeff Bridges as The Dude. It's easy to watch, absolutely hilarious, and has stood the test of time. Unfortunately, the opposite can be said for its bizarre sequel, "The Jesus Rolls," which came out more than 20 years after "The Big Lebowski" and absolutely tanked with audiences and critics alike.

"The Jesus Rolls" was a strange follow-up because it's also a remake of the 1974 French film "Going Places," and it only exists because writer, director, and star John Turturro begged the Coens to let him make a "Big Lebowski" sequel about his character, a criminal and rival bowler known as "The Jesus." Turturro is great, but audiences weren't really interested in learning any more about the character to begin with, as he's described as a pedophile in "Big Lebowski." (This is cleared up in "The Jesus Rolls" with a bit about it all being a misunderstanding involving a boy in a urinal, but that would require seeing the "Big Lebowski" sequel/spin-off to know.) Between its bizarre choice of lead character, the Coens neither writing nor directing, and a release delay that led to it hitting theaters in February 2020, "The Jesus Rolls" was pretty much destined to be a bomb from the start.

Even removed from its abysmally-timed 2020 release date, "The Jesus Rolls" was never really set up to knock them down. Fans of "The Big Lebowski" are mostly interested in the movie for The Dude and maybe Walter (John Goodman), so a weird offshoot based on an old French flick about two criminals going around the countryside just wasn't going to draw big crowds. "The Jesus Rolls" stars Turturro and Bobby Cannavale as the meandering ne'er-do-wells, and though it has some truly fantastic cameos (including Susan Sarandon, Tim Blake Nelson, and Christopher Walken), they aren't enough to save the movie from itself. 

There are some "Big Lebowski" references peppered throughout the film to help keep fans interested, but without any real updates on The Dude, his child with Maude (Julianne Moore), or even a glimpse of Bridges' glorious mug, it honestly might have been better off as a stand-alone movie. Turturro really made The Jesus his own in "The Big Lebowski" and helped cement the creepy character as instantly recognizable, but that probably hurt him in the long run because nobody wants to watch a film about a guy who did 12 months in Chino for being a child molester, and that's all anyone really remembers about The Jesus. The Jesus rolled, but unfortunately, it was a total gutterball.