Raising Arizona (1987)

The Worst Film Ever

A Major Disappointment

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

I find it hard to believe this awful movie followed Blood Simple. In that film every scene is brilliantly written, acted and shot. In this film, by contrast, virtually every scene misfires. The relationship between Cage and Hunter is implausible and Cage's silly hair quickly becomes irritating. The kidnapping and everything that follows is gauche and mediocre. The Big Lebowski and Barton Fink are among my favourite movies so it's not as if I don't enjoy the Coen brothers' sense of humour. Indeed, the problem is the absence of anything genuinely funny. But then the Coens are nothing if not inconsistent, witness Burn after Reading and Hail Caesar.

Raising Arizona has been hailed as a classic comedy film by the Coen Brothers, for in part of their comedic deliver and tone. The film has a different and older feel about it, in which the comedy is for a required taste. Raising Arizona isn't as funny as it has been claimed, with a bizarre and unrealistic plot. Overall the film doesn't deliver in what it has been praised upon and at most points is lacking in substance and overall not too enjoyable or engaging. The acting and visuals are solid but not feeling the hype the film has received.

I'm not a die-hard Coen brothers fan but I've watched and enjoyed the majority of their movies. This being one of their early ones, it was neat to finally watch it. From the start, it's apparent that they're going for a much more slapstick and visual humour than their later comedies like 'The Big Lebowski or 'Intolerable Cruelty'. Nicolas Cage is surprisingly restrained in this early role playing a lower than average intelligence 'repeat offender' robber. For me, I found John Goodman to be the highlight of this movie. Not only does he get some of the best visual gags, it feels like he knows how goofy the movie is and is just having fun with the role. But really, the visuals are the highlight of this movie. Barry Sonnenfeld was the cinematographer (Who would go on to direct) has plenty of fantastic tracking shots and cameras attached to motorcycles that really helps the movie stay exciting and fun throughout. The humour has aged quite well, the only thing I noticed is that it had a rather cute ending compared to a lot of their later comedies. Still definitely worth a watch, even without Nic going 'Full-Cage'.

Early into this movie, I began to long for the crispy, witty dialog and funny scenes of the great comedies of the mid-20th century. A little longer and I longed for the hilarious antics of the screwball comedies and frantic escapades of the movies of yore. And shortly, I pined for the clever, funny and wonderful plots of the old comedies. In the absence of any and all of that, "Raising Arizona" is little more than a stupid conglomeration of skits. If there is any real humor here, its disguised by nitwit characters in a dumber than dumb story. This was one of the hardest films to stay with, just to see how it ended. How anyone can find this enjoyable is beyond me. I thought about bailing on it twice, but then I wouldn't be able to be fair in a review of the film. I stayed, and my review is that this film was a waste of time – in its making and for anyone who watches it. The only character that comes close to any humor is Nathan Arizona Sr. (played by Trey Wilson) – but just in his early scenes. For clever and funny writing, I could think of only one line that might get a smile from a few viewers. That's this one when Leonard Smalls (played by Randall Cobb) visits Nathan Sr. Smalls, "You wanna find an outlaw, you call an outlaw. You wanna find a Dunkin' Donuts, call a cop." The Coen brothers tried to use techniques that were very funny in original films of decades ago, but all flop here. One is a haphazard police chase with continuous shooting that hits nothing. Another is a chase in and around, up and down, and through different rooms in a house. This is a dumb movie, with mostly dumb acting, a dumb script, dumb scenes and a dumb story. Audiences of the day, and the critics, didn't think that much of the movie then. But as society seems to dumb down in succeeding decades, this movie has viewers who enjoy it. I wonder if most have ever seen any of the great comedies of the past. The film does have a touch of sickness about it, in toying with various crimes as humorous. This is a dud of a movie,