Blood Simple Reviews
CinePassion
The Coens remain fastidiously indifferent to the plight of their creations, the better to concentrate on the dazzle of their doom
F5 (Wichita, KS)
Someone please explain it to me: why? What's the deal?
| Original Score: 1/5
It isn't really about anything except making a commercial narrative movie outside the industry.
The movie remains mired in a smart-alecky film-school sensibility.
It tells a story in which every individual detail seems to make sense, and every individual choice seems logical, but the choices and details form a bewildering labyrinth in which there are times when even the murderers themselves don't know who they are.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Netflix
The neo-noir debut from the Coen brothers is snappy, cynical and intricate.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
eFilmCritic.com
The Coens explode onto the scene with this blistering neo-noir masterpiece.
| Original Score: 5/5
Flipside Movie Emporium
A good filmmaker can make grim material watchable, but it takes a great one (or two) to make it fun.
Full Review
| Original Score: A+
L.A. Weekly
Blood Simple is so derivative -- of Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain and a thousand and one noirs -- that who or what is being ripped off is essentially beside the point.
eFilmCritic.com
Blood Simple isn't bad, just self-consciously poky and austere -- a James M. Cain homage, rural-art-film division.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Combustible Celluloid
We had no idea what we were in for back then, but the film truly did announce the arrival of two major talents.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
An inordinately good low-budget film noir thriller.
Blunt Review
Joel and Ethan Coen's spooky tale is still fresh today! They truly opened the door for low budget, intelligent, slow moving films; that real people banter, believable situations all delightfully twisted around a dreamlike state.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Rolling Stone
Top Critic
Boxoffice Magazine
