Raising Arizona
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Movie Reviews of Raising Arizona
Movie Review: Simply one of my favorite movies
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the best from the Coen Brothers. Hilarious, excellent characters right from the stars (Cage and Hunter) on through. I have seen this movie many times and it never gets tired. While this is a comedy it has a wonderful ending that I found quite moving. Two thumbs, and a bunch of toes up from meMovie Review: Some great, weird humor here!
Summary: 5 Stars
This great movie is absolutely hilarious...and one of my all-time favs besides AIRPLANE! Where else can you get prisoners marrying policewomen, babies being stolen, a trailer trash family (the nephew and his wife), and the rider from the Apocolypse? Right here in RAISING ARIZONA! Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunt give excellent performances...and it is easy to see there is more to come for these folks. One can also see a younger John Goodman as one of HI's prison buddies who breaks out of jail and comes to stay with HI and Ed.
This movie is just plain wacky! It's so wacky that it's both funny and weird. So, if you want to see the career-beginning movies of some of the best actors from the '90s and '00's, go ahead and watch this little movie. It's fun....really fun!
Movie Review: The Beginning of the Coen's artistic Peak
Summary: 5 Stars
Overall, this movie is great.
But look closely at the first 5-7 minutes, the introduction up to the yodeling and the title credits when the plan is hatched. This intro is perfect filmmaking, ingeniously paced, hilariously written, and oddly very touching. The whistled, bluegrass Beethoven's 9th gets me every time ...
"Raising Arizona" also launched a decade of creativity by the Coen brothers unmatched by any modern directors I can think of. See this, and then see all the others. Great stuff.
Movie Review: Son... You Got A Panty On Yer Head! - The Coen Bros. Finest
Summary: 5 Stars
"Raising Arizona" tells the story of an ex-con with a penchant for robbing convenience stores, H.I. McDonnough, played by Nicholas Cage and his new wife Ed, short for Edwina, played by and expressly written for Holly Hunter by the Brothers Coen.
Ed and Hi find themselves together after Ed takes Hi's mugshots and while Hi serves three months in prison then paroled , they marry. The film has some great scenes and one liners galore like the prison scene where a group is receiving counselling:
Prison Counsellor: Why do you say you feel "trapped" in a man's body.
"Trapped" Convict: Well, sometimes I get the menstrual cramps real hard.
After a couple months of wedded bliss the McDonnough's need to concieve a child but with no luck, their failed attempt at adoption and their subsequent kidnapping of Nathan Jr. nathan Jr. is one of the famous Arizona Quintuplets who belong to furniture mogul and owner of all Upainted Arizona stores, Nathan Arizona, Sr.(Trey Wilson) & his wife Florence. The kidnapping highlights the plot.
Enter Hi's prison buddy brothers, Gale and Evelle Snoats, freshly escaped out of the pokey and "the finest pair that ever broke air," according to Hi. The brothers Snoats are played to the hilt by John Goodman and William Forsythe. They have a plan to get Hi back in the business with a bank heist of the local hayseed Farmers and Merchants Bank down the way.
Also in the McDonnough's social circle is Hi's work buddy and swinger, Glen (Sam McMurray) his swinger wife, Dot (an excellent, albeit small part for Frances McDormand)and their bratty passel of kids.
The hunt for the baby Arizona is on with Randall 'Tex' Cobb playing Leonard Smalls, a bounty hunter who is hired by Nathan Sr. to find Nathan Jr and bring him back home to his mamma.
Many hilarious and touching scenes occur in this fine movie from the Coen brothers with some top-notch acting and fleshed out characatures.
Highly Recommended For Multiple Viewings!
Happy Watching!
Movie Review: Raw, Unvarnished Comedy -- Laughs Galore!
Summary: 4 Stars
One of the earlier films of the Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan), "Raising Arizona" nevertheless lays the foundation for the Coens' later, more polished efforts.H.I. ("Hi") McDonough, played with an earnest romanticism by Nicolas Cage, is a classic Coen protagonist. He means well, even if he can't get his master plan to quite come together (this is a man of dreams, forced into the life of a small-time hood by trickle-down economics), and he is prone to speaking in fits of poetry that often go awry ("There's what's right and there's what's right, and never the twain shall meet"). In one of the most inspired courtings ever to be put on film, Hi woos and wins Police Officer Edwina ("Ed"), played by Holly Hunter in a career-defining role, while being booked on numerous occasions.
Denied the joys of parenthood by Ed's infertile womb ("a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase") and Hi's criminal past - Ed's police service doesn't quite "cancel out" Hi's record like they had hoped -- Hi and Ed can't really enjoy their "salad days" in their trailer in the Arizona desert. That is, until the Arizona Quints are born to unpainted furniture magnate Nathan Arizona. Deciding that old Nathan and his wife have more kids than they could handle, Ed and Hi decide to kidnap one of the little nippers. In a scene that parodies "Jaws," Hi snags Nathan Jr., and Ed and Hi are parents.
Unfortunately, Hi's criminal past catches up wtih him as Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe) break out of prison and hide out with Hi at the family trailer. Soon they are on to Hi's kidnapping, and they decide to pursue their own agenda. Unfortunately for all concerned, bounty hunter Leonard Smalls is on the hunt for the kidnapped youngster, too -- and a nasty bloodhound from hell he is, too. Surely casting "Tex" Cobb in this part is one of the most inspired bits of casting ever!
The movie is chock full of surprises, from the chase scenes involving what seems like ten packs of hounds and more gunfire than one could possibly imagine, to a fight in the trailer that won't be topped until "Kill Bill, Vol. 2," and an over-the-top cameo performance by Frances MacDormand as a nosy neighbor with a fondness for bibical names and a trove of baby advice. The dialogue is rich, filled with comic inspiration and a touching devotion to family. And, like most Coen brothers movies, things generally turn out all right for our heroes, they definitely don't wind up the way they planned.
For fans of the Coens, off-beat comedies, Nic Cage and Holly Hunter (which should describe an awful lot of folks), this is a heck of a film.