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Critics Consensus: A terrifically original, eccentric screwball comedy, Raising Arizona may not be the Coens' most disciplined movie, but it's one of their most purely entertaining.
Critic Consensus: A terrifically original, eccentric screwball comedy, Raising Arizona may not be the Coens' most disciplined movie, but it's one of their most purely entertaining.
All Critics (53) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (5) | DVD (3)
Raising Arizona is no big deal, but it has a rambunctious charm.
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.
The cartoon vision of southwestern tackiness doesn't cut very deep, but the mise-en-scene is packed with clever clutter.
While film is filled with many splendid touches and plenty of yocks, it often doesn't hold together as a coherent story.
Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet.
Like Blood Simple, it's full of technical expertise but has no life of its own.
Yes, the Coens are techno-brat showoffs, but when the show is this good, who cares?
In their first masterpiece, the Coens first delight with sheer kinetics, then dazzle with colorful colloquialisms & verbal voodoo, and eventually disarm you with the grace and guile through which they examine modern foibles, failures and forgiveness.
A non-stop chase movie filled with so much good humor it's like an all-expense paid trip to another planet.
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
Sharp, inventive and hilarious, with a marvellous cast of Coen regulars.
An entertaining, energetic, and stylish comedy about a simple but loving couple who long to be parents.
The inspired dialogue is so hilarious and the absurdities we see here pile up so insanely that this loony comedy turns out to be one of the most delicious and unpredictable of the Coen brothers' entire filmography, with a bunch of excellent performances from an excellent cast.
Super Reviewer
Mix Looney Tunes, Sam Raimi's 'horror film camera moves', 40s B-movies, and a bit of The Road Warrior, and that's pretty much what you get here with this profoundly absurd farcical comedy from Joel and Ethan Coen. H.I. McDonnough is a non-violent stick-up man who falls in love with mugshot photographer Edwina "Ed". When they find out she's unable to bear children, the two decide to kidnap 1/5 of a set of quintuplets belonging to an unpainted furniture mogul named Nathan Arizona. What follows is a mad cap romp, especially when a set of swingers, two of H.I.'s prison buddies, and an apocalyptic biker get thrown in the mix. The film is absolutely ridiculous and absurd, and the whole is less than the sum of its parts, but it is cohesive in and of itself. It's also really weird, but quite funny, too. This is easily the wackiest film that the Coens have made, and the highlight is an extended chase involving cops, dogs, a nutty soundtrack, and lots of frenetic camerawork, all because of a case of stolen Huggies. The casting is deliriously perfect, and Nicolas Cage is a lot of fun as H.I. Holly Hunter is very funny and sweet as Ed, John Goodman and William Forsythe are a delight as the prison buddies, and Frances McDormand is an overacting hoot as one of the swingers. Randall "Tex" Cobb is also great as the biker. All in all, this is a good film, but not a great one, at least not to me. It's uneven, and really nutty, but any film that had a major influence of My Name is Earl is worth checking out. Oh yeah, and of course the music and cinematography are dynamite as well. But since it's a Coen Bros. film that should go without saying.
One of the most criative and entertaining Coen's brothers film.
Though I'm not as much of a fan of this as most Coen Bros. fans, there's no denying the great lead performances and the creative nature of this slapstick comedy.
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