Raising Arizona (1987)

All Critics (50) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (46) | Rotten (5) | DVD (13)

Raising Arizona is no big deal, but it has a rambunctious charm.

January 14, 2013 Full Review

Pauline Kael

New Yorker

Top Critic

To their old fascination with Sunbelt pathology, to their side-winding Steadicam and pristine command of screen space, the Coens have added a robust humor, a plot that keeps outwitting expectations and a...dollop of sympathy for their forlorn kidnapers.

March 13, 2009 Full Review

Richard Corliss

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

The cartoon vision of southwestern tackiness doesn't cut very deep, but the mise-en-scene is packed with clever clutter.

November 6, 2007 Full Review

Pat Graham

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

While film is filled with many splendid touches and plenty of yocks, it often doesn't hold together as a coherent story.

November 6, 2007 Full Review | Comments (9)

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet.

June 24, 2006 Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Top Critic

Like Blood Simple, it's full of technical expertise but has no life of its own.

May 20, 2003 Full Review | Comments (3)

Vincent Canby

New York Times

Top Critic

The immense joy of this is in the realization that, for all their precision, Joel and Ethan Coen are essentially comic barnstormers rather than frigid ironists

March 21, 2010 Full Review

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Sharp, inventive and hilarious, with a marvellous cast of Coen regulars.

March 13, 2009 Full Review

Film4

An entertaining, energetic, and stylish comedy about a simple but loving couple who long to be parents.

November 6, 2007 Full Review

TV Guide's Movie Guide

In a shrewdly calculated move to show their versatility, the Coens made this madcap comedy right after Blood Simple. If their debut was slow and spare, this one has breathneck pacing and hopping banter by terrific Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage.

October 31, 2006 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

March 10, 2005

Clint Morris

Moviehole

Raising Arizona... is an explosively clever and riotously funny exploration of fertility, homemaking, and the working class in the prisons and trailer parks of the desert southwest.

January 15, 2005 Full Review

Eric Meyerson

Filmcritic.com

The film is loaded with marvelous slapstick sequences and quirky character humor. While some viewers may find it too eccentric or too ready to make fun of blue collar America, most will find its comic surprises and unpredictable narrative to be most fulfi

October 14, 2004

Douglas Pratt

DVDLaser

A highly original and funny film.

August 27, 2004 Full Review

Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Spirituality and Practice

• 1. Glen: Mind you don't cut yourself Mordecai.
  – Submitted by Ross B (6 months ago)
• 1. Hayseed in Pick-Up: Son... you've got a panty on your head.
  – Submitted by Ross B (6 months ago)
• 1. Evelle: Do these balloons blow up into funny shapes at all?
  2. Feisty Hayseed: Well no....unless round is funny.
  – Submitted by John M (8 months ago)
• 1. Evelle: Hi...you're young and you got you're health...what you want with a job.
  – Submitted by Erik L (8 months ago)
• 1. Nathan Arizona Sr.: Just tell me why you did it.
  2. H.I. McDonnough: We can't have one of our own.
  3. Nathan Arizona Sr.: Well, look. If you can't have kids, you just gotta keep tryin'and hope medical science catches up with you, like Florence and me.
  – Submitted by Nandu J (9 months ago)
• 1. Feisty Hayseed: Well, which is it, young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground?
  – Submitted by Brandon J (10 months ago)

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