Watched this again recently and still as good today as it was then.
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paulwattriley11 February 2020
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When I first heard of Raising Arizona, I was 8 years old. I was spending a weekend with my dad and it was on a Friday night. Usually when I see a movie for the first time on television, I either direct my attention to the screen to see what it is or direct my attention to something that I was doing. I came in right in the middle of the movie and I didn't know what it was about and I certainly didn't understand the concept behind it. But, I do remember laughing and having a good time while watching this movie. Now, looking back on it, it still makes me laugh even harder and longer.
The story centers around a convict/loser named H.I. McDunnough, (Nicholas Cage). His friends called him Hi. For the last several years, Hi has been robbing convenience stores and ending up in the slammer. After three times, Hi decides to go straight. He seeks the attraction of a pretty cop named Edwina "Ed" McDunnough, (Holly Hunter). Soon after, Hi and Ed get married. But, there's just one problem. They want to raise a family. So, the couple decides to keep trying. But according to a local gynecologist, Ed is infertile, meaning that she can't have kids. According to Hi's perspective, he can't "plant his seed" into Ed. Hopeless, the couple decides to steal one of the Arizona quints. One night, Hi and Ed steal one of the quints from a very wealthy businessman, (Sam McMurray), who owns a furniture store in Arizona.
As the movie progresses, the humor starts to kick in when the local police and the F.B.I. conduct a manhunt on the missing quint. Meanwhile, two prisoners, (John Goodman and William Forsythe), escaped from prison and take shelter in Hi's home. But, the two prisoners want Hi to go along with them to pull off a heist. While that is going, another character comes walking into the story. An deranged and hellish lone motorcycle driver, (Randall 'Tex' Cobb), enters the story through Hi's dreams and his job is to find the quint and find the people who stole him.
You can see that the movie is quite ambitious for its own kind. To tell you the truth, it is. This is the first comedy being made by the always entertaining movie-making duo, Joel and Ethan Coen. Their movies never ceased to amaze me. They have really carved out a reputation of movie- making with their witty scripts and their zany approach to a story. What surprises me is that this movie is actually their first comedy. Before the Coen brothers made Raising Arizona, they wrote and direct a very dark and violent neo-noir film, Blood Simple, which was released three earlier. This is quite surprising because Blood Simple was a very serious and sometimes bloody film that had a lot of twists and turns in it.
Here, it's a change of pace. How they were to pull this one off is something that strikes me dumb. Watching the movie, I found myself laughing more than ever since I now understand the themes involved. One of the funniest scenes that I saw and it is the most significant one is when Cage's character robs a convenience store and disguised himself by putting pantyhose on his head. This plan doesn't since his wife leaves him behind, having him deal with the trigger-happy clerk and the police. The chase goes all over the place with Cage being chased by the clerk, the police and a pack of dogs. Even in the middle of the chase, Cage is even given a lift with an screaming hayseed driver. The way the chase sequence is shot makes it seems that the chase is being played as a cartoon. Maybe that's why the scene made me laugh the first time around. It's that sense of wacko humor that generates a laugh out of the audience. Not only the film's humor made me laugh, but toward the end of the movie, there's a bittersweet sense that ties the movie together with the characters trying hard to have a family.
The writing by the brothers is very funny and even the performances by Cage, Hunter, Goodman and even Forsthye are excellent. I did believe that Nicholas Cage was really Hi. The fact that he sports a mustache and a dopey appearance when he is getting his mugshot done is very funny and also interesting.
I'm not really a big fan of comedies because most of them are done pretty badly and never seem to hit me with their humor. That is true in today's movies. In today's movies, you can get away with everything. You can get a kick out of a audience that admired slapstick humor or bathroom humor. I understand that perspective. But, I enjoyed watching comedies that have funny dialogue in it. i believe that if you can make an audience laugh out loud with the dialogue, then that can be funny alone. The Coen brothers know how to generate a laugh out of the audience with their style of writing.
Even in the today world, the Coen brothers are still going strong. Last year, they written and directed the Oscar-nominated picture, Inside Llewyn Davis. The brothers seem to really be shifting gears according to the genres. They can frightened you and tantalizes you with Blood Simple. They can make you laugh with Raising Arizona. They can compel you with Miller's Crossing. And they can jolt you with The Big Lebowski. I wonder what they're going to do next. ★★★ 1/2 3 1/2 stars. -
caspian197831 July 2004The Coen Brothers first "masterpiece" black comedy was a 1987 surprise hit that raised the bar in the comedy genre. Future Academy Award winners Cage and Hunter star in what may be one of the most original stories ever to come out of Arizona. Goodman shows the world he can be funny as the misunderstood and somewhat crazy escaped convict. Cage and Hunter have so much love to give, they steal a baby from Mr. Arizona himself. A modern day (80's) fantasy that chooses an interesting setting to tell its tale. The hilarious innocence is non-stop as Raising Arizona showcases relationship, friendship, vanity, ignorance, and the search for peace and forgiveness. Who knows....maybe it was Utah?
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tieman644 September 2010"It's like opening day at a miniature golf course." – Pauline Kael (on "Raising Arizona")
The Coen's walk a tightrope between tragedy and comedy, between noir and screwball comedy. This is understandable: the chaotic nature of screwball meshes perfectly with the indeterministic nature of noir (noir is screwball without the comedy).
The difficulty is in maintaining a balance. Drift a little too much to one side and comedy wins, giving rise to infantile jokes, and the glib, mean-spirited tone of screwball. Drift too far to the other side, however, and you get stuff like "No Country For Old Men" and "Burn After Reading", in which we wallow in a cartoonish vision of noir, nihilism reduced to an aesthetic choice.
Like the Coen's best flicks, "Raising Arizona" lies somewhere in the middle. It's a wacky comic-book, but you feel for these cartoonish characters and their somewhat tragic tale.
Most of the Coen Brothers' films utilise reoccurring visual motifs (the hats in "Miller's Crossing", the tunnels in "A Serious Man", the hoops in "Hudsucker Proxy", the saucers in "The Man Who Wasn't There" etc). As "Raising" tells the story of a zany couple who kidnap a baby because they are not able to conceive children of their own, the chief motifs here are a more generalised swathe of birth imagery. Characters are "given birth" by puddles of mud, holes in the ground, are "reborn" from under objects and our entire cast of heroes is portrayed as being ridiculously childish. Even the film's villain, a mythical biker seemingly torn from the book of Revelations (or a "Mad Max" movie!), comes across as a big baby, the words "my mama didn't love me" tattooed to his flesh.
This biker's name, Leonard Smalls, is itself based on the character Lenny Smalls from John Steinbeck "Of Mice and Men", a retarded but powerful man-child who couldn't get close to things or people lest he destroy them with his big, dumb, baby grip. Unable to love or be loved, the film's apocalyptic biker - borne of atomic mushroom clouds and forever covered in smouldering, nuclear ash - is thus a vengeful version of Steinbeck's Mr Smalls, forever attempting to "get back at", not just his parents, but all parents. The film's title, "Raising Arizona", thus has a double meaning: raising a baby called Arizona and razing Arizona, the wacky cast's sunbaked, south-western state blown to hell.
Coupled to this vengeful man-child's parenticidal quest is the quest of "Raising Arizona's" hero, a dopey small-time criminal played by Nicholas Cage. Cage's mission is to "be reformed", to "end his criminal ways" and to "become a responsible father". In other words, he wants to grow up and stop being a child. The problem is, his wife can't conceive and so the only way he can "grow up and become a father" is to kidnap a kid.
And that's the absurd Catch-22 of the film. To stop being a child, Nick Cage has to kidnap a child, and kidnapping a child merely proves that he's still a silly man-child. Only the Coens could cook something like this up.
Like "No Country For Old Men", "Raising Arizona" ends with the recollection of a dream. Prior to this, our hero battles Lenny Smalls in an epic duel. Cage wins, but by then it's too late. Smalls, a precursor to "No Country's" Anton Chigurh, is the spirit of chaos embodied and conspiring against poor Nick Cage. Cage has no child, is unable to "stop being a baby", precisely because of Small's existence, in much the same way the omnipresent UFOs of "The Man Who Wasn't There" embody noir fate.
The film is heavily indebted to Preston Sturges, early screwballs and the 1938 comedy "Bringing Up Baby", but stylistically it branches off into wholly new territory. The Coens serve up a kind of "pop art" version of the Arizona desert, in which everything has an artificial look and fluorescent lighting makes the world look like a 24 hour convenience story.
Elsewhere the film's soundtrack is funny (yodelling and folk music), its characters are all live-action cartoons (modelled on the buffoonery of Warner animations and stuff like Woody Wood Pecker) and the Coens' dialogue is wonderfully eccentric ("Sometimes I get them menstrual cramps real hard", "Edwina's insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase", "Mighty fine cereal flakes, Mrs. McDonough"), though some passages do get tedious with their unnecessarily decorative speechifying.
More than Hitchcock, the Coens storyboard every inch of their films, lending "Raising Arizona" a look which resembles comic book panels, every shot locked into place, every image calculated and pre-planned. This gives the film a vivid style, every sequence storyboarded for maximum effect. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld also makes excellent use of extreme high and low camera angles, wide angle lenses and gorgeous night time photography and/or locations. The film's compositions zap the eyeballs, and its camera work - gliding, always graceful - induces a certain aesthetic head-rush.
Mostly, though, the film exudes that mixture of charm and pathos that made "The Big Lebowski" so endearing. "Raising Arizona" may be a 95 minute Road Runner cartoon which mocks redneck culture (trailers, lawn chairs, accents, shot guns etc), but there's still something very sweet and likable about its characters. The irony is, it's the refusal of "troublesome" actors like Nick Cage, Steve Buscemi and Jeff Bridges to be "cartoons" which imbue the best Coen flicks with their warmth. These actors seem to occasionally, or inadvertently, rise above the Coen universe, disobeying the wills of their directorial noir Gods.
8.9/10 - Worth multiple viewings. -
This amusing picture concerns about an ex-convict (Nicolas Cage) who falls in love for a policewoman (Holly Hunter) who takes him a picture each time he goes to prison . Both of whom wish sons but cannot have any . Then they decide to abduct one from a couple with five children . Meanwhile , a pair of ex convicts (John Goodman and William Forshyte) meddle themselves in their marriage life . Besides , a bounty hunter (Randall Tex Cobb) called the ¨lone biker of apocalypse¨ sets off in pursuit the protagonists for obtaining the reward offered by the child's dad .
The film blends irony , humor , tongue-in-cheek , chase scenes , slapstick and is very amusing and entertaining . It's a splendid comedy with set pieces cartoon where the action and humor is continuous from the presentation until the ending . The film was influenced by the works of Preston Sturges and writers such as William Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor , known for her southern literature . Enthusiastic performances by the two main stars , Nicolas Cage is perfectly casted , though his relationship with the Coen Brothers wasn't respectful , but turbulent . When he arrived on-set, and at various other points during production , Cage offered suggestions to the Coen brothers, which they ignored . And Holly Hunter is sympathetic , giving an attractive acting . The movie that was shot in 10 weeks has its moments here and there and being pretty enjoyable and bemusing . Many crew members who had worked with the Coen Brothers on Blood simple (1984) returned for this film , including cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld , co-producer Mark Silverman , production designer Jane Musky , associate producer and assistant director Deborah Reinisch , and film composer Carter Burwell . Breathtaking cinematography by Barry Sonnenfeld who makes a great camera work , after becoming a famous director with many smash hits (Men in black) . Excellent musical score by Carter Burwell (Rob Roy) , he's habitual musician of Cohen brothers films . Rating : High recommendation. Above average . Well worth watching. -
Sandcooler4 July 2009There are really few directors that are as consistent as the Coen brothers. Their strange sense of humour just works in every movie they make, and it's extremely fun and addictive. With that said, it's difficult to decide which of their movies is the best, but this one is a worthy contender. It's incredibly outrageous, wild and crazy, but at the same time it's close and heart-warming. It has a very surreal look, yet the emotional scenes still look very genuine, which is quite an achievement. The characters are also vintage Coen, they're all offbeat and weird, but that just raises more sympathy for them. It also helps that they all express themselves through some razor-sharp dialogues. I could barely make out the lines because I was too busy laughing at the previous lines, you wonder where these keep coming from. This movie just isn't like anything I've ever seen. It's astoundingly funny in all its weirdness.
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damianphelps12 December 2020This is it, this is the movie that I feel unleased the dynamic and over the top Nico Cage.
RA is a colourful film that packs an entertaining punch for the audience via a fantastic cast.
Great film that Cage absolutely dominates and we are truly blessed that he does.
Highly recommend for a spoonful of something different :) -
Mister-66 September 2000This is one of those surreal experiences that make you wonder whether or not you laughed at what you saw or what you THOUGHT you had seen. Of course, being concocted by Joel and Ethan Coen makes it even more surreal.
As "repeat offender" H. I. McDonnough, Nicolas Cage creates yet another strange, offbeat character that gets under your skin for days after. After returning to the same prison time after time under the eye of Officer Ed (Holly Hunter), he goes straight and they get married, planning to have a big family. It is only then, he finds that Ed is a "barren, rocky place".
So, what's a couple to do?
This is where the "Arizona" of the title comes in, when they steal one of the quintuplets of the Arizona family. Naturally, the father (Wilson) goes all out to find the culprits, even enlisting the aid of a "tracker" (Cobb), who is kind of an existential bounty hunter with a good nose.
From this deceptively simple story line, the Coens create a dreamscape that is mesmerizing, serpentine, loaded with all matter of visual input, deft one-liners and characters that are so off-the-wall that it's hard to forget them and the situations they get into.
Coen Brother stalwart John Goodman plays yet another flaky loon - this time an escaped con - who, along with his little brother (Forsythe) complain that the prison "had no more to offer them".
Of course, the chases, fight scenes and getaway scenes are elaborate, well-choreographed and exciting, as well as funny. How could they not be? This whole movie is one huge snowball rolling down the side of a mountain, growing larger and rolling faster as it reaches the end of its trip.
But to try and explain this movie is an exercise in futility; you'd be better off explaining Kierkegaard to a room full of second-graders. You just have to see it yourself. If your sense of humor is a bit on the dry side and you love fancy camera work and Fellini-esque characters, it's your kind of movie.
Trust me.
Ten stars and a complimentary pack of Huggies for "Raising Arizona", the best Dadaist head trip film with kidnapped babies, exploding bunnies and Frances McDormand in the desert you'll ever find...that has a fight in a trailer. -
Nazi_Fighter_David11 December 2005For all the visual flair and deft performances on display in their films, the Coens' greatest virtue lies in writing In terms of cheerful stories, witty dialog and the creation of a coherent, plausible fantasy world peopled by vivid characters, their ability to work original and entertaining variations on a genre indicates well for the future
Opening with a brilliant pre-credits monologue, "Raising Arizona" tells of an incompetent, compulsive petty criminal's love for his prison warder: married but infertile, the couple kidnap a baby, whose tycoon father hires a crazed biker to find and kill the culprits A surreal, slapstick satire, it takes intense pleasure in exciting plotting, showy and cheap colors, and hilarious screwball characters -
ddmcc24 April 2006A lot of things come together to make this film highly enjoyable; acting, writing, music, pace, directing... It's over-the-top fun. It took me several viewings before it sunk in that the film's base story is about child kidnapping; which is an extraordinarily serious crime. But this film makes you enjoy every minute so it's easy to forget the seriousness of the base story.
While I'm not a fan of Nicholas Cage, I thought this was a perfect vehicle for him. Holly Hunter is always excellent, IMHO. Their attention to detail in crafting their characters was on point and thorough.
"Well alright then." :) -
Cool film. Very stylish and different, especially for what was being done in comedy in 1987, for example this has very little relation to comedies of the year like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Spaceballs or Harry and the Hendersons. Also, is it just me or is My Name is Earl heavily inspired by Raising Arizona? The general small-town, quaint, do-gooder-can't-do-no-good vibe? The tone? The narration? Hmm, maybe it's just me but I wouldn't be surprised.
Anyway, if you're expecting to laugh your bollocks off watching this, you're going in with the wrong mentality and that might sabotage your feelings about this film. It's not unfunny but it's hardly deserving of the comedy genre accolades that have been heaped upon it by the cinema industry.
Go in expecting a very interesting story about morals, ethics and how they intersect with desperation. This is a black, situational comedy that makes you say "that's funny" rather than actually laugh, if you get what I mean. -
"Raising Arizona" is one of what I consider to be the five instantly classic films by the team of Ethan and Joel Coen, the others being "Blood Simple", "Fargo", "Oh Brother Where Are Thou", and "The Big Lebowski".
But "Raising Arizona" is my personal favorite, and probably the most quotable films I have ever seen, with some of the best dialogue ever written for film.
The story in brief: H.I. (Nicholas Cage) and "Ed" (Holly Hunter, in one of my favorite roles of hers) portray, respectively, an ex-con and a cop who meet when he keeps getting arrested for robbing convenience stores. They fall in love, get married, decide that "there is just too much love" between them, and they need a "critter to share it with". Upon finding that "Edwina's insides were a rocky place" where H.I.'s "seed could find no purchase", they try to adopt, but are turned down because of H.I.'s record. Then they read in the newspaper about local unpainted furniture storeowner Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), owner of "Unpainted Arizona", and his wife having quintuplets as a result of fertility pills, and who joke that "They got more than they can handle". The couple hatch a plan to take one of the babies and raise it as their own.
What results is an ongoing, fast-paced, hilarious set of misadventures, complicated by the appearance of a ruthless, heartless outlaw named Leonard Smalls (Randall "Tex" Cobb) Nathan Arizona hires to find the missing baby, and two felon friends from H.I.'s past (John Goodman and William Forsythe), who make a childbirth-like escape from prison. Sam McMurray (the smarmy dad in "Drop Dead Gorgeous") is H.I.'s....smarmy boss, Glen. Frances McDormand (real-life spouse of Joel Coen, and star of other Coen films such as "Blood Simple" and "Fargo") is his excitable wife Dot. M. Emmet Walsh ("Blood Simple") has a scenery-chewing cameo role as H.I.'s talkative co-worker.
When Ed finally opens up her 5'2" can of Southern-fried whup-ass, throwing her badge to the dirt, striding towards Leonard Smalls as she bellows with all her might, "Gimme back that baby, you warthog from HELL!!!" I always fling my arms up and shout "You go girl! Kick his ass!"
And the way Hunter cries is hilarious.
Holly Hunter was great in this role, as one would expect. She's a very talented actress, in both serious and comedic roles.
Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter made a great on screen couple, Cage with his hair standing out in every direction, looking like a hapless, browbeaten puppy half of the time, and Hunter as his diminutive firecracker of a wife who loves him and tries to keep him honest (oh yeah except for that little kidnapping excursion).
I could go on and on about this film but suffice to say that so far I haven't met anyone who didn't find "Raising Arizona" hilarious. And as any great Coen brothers film, it has a certain mythic quality that's hard to describe, but is present all of of the brothers' best efforts. When I was single, I often used Coen brothers films as a barometer of sorts for prospective boyfriends. For instance, I remember seeing "Fargo" on a first date, and when we came out of the theater, the guy (whose name I have since forgotten anyway) remarked "Huh, I didn't think much of that", while I was thinking how blown away I was by the film! I immediately thought to myself "So much for him! This relationship won't last long."
For more great Coen comedy, check out "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" (2000), which is loosely based on Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey". Another great Coen comedy is "The Big Lebowski" (1998), which also includes my favorite singer/songwriter Aimee Mann in a brief cameo, and boasts a cult following that has resulted in an annual "Lebowskifest" for fans of the film.
"Blood Simple" (1984) is probably my favorite film noir modern-day classic tale of lust and betrayal, and is my personal second-favorite Coen brothers film. "Fargo" (1996), which won the Screen writing Oscar, and an Oscar for Frances McDormand, is another must-see Coen classic. -
akingston8022 April 2020It's a pretty solid film from the brothers, but they have delivered so many masterpieces, that some of their catalogue pales in comparison. That's not to say there's anything wrong with this film - it's great - probably better than most, but they have set the bar really high with many of their other films.
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starbooty1120 February 2007I really don't understand the appeal of this film. I truly like many of the Coen brothers films (Barton Fink, Fargo), but It just seems like everyone in the film is trying way to hard to be funny. I especially loathe the characters that are brothers (John Goodman) who escape from prison and the pointless subplot of the deranged hell's angel. Maybe It's just me. A lot of people I know say this is the funniest film they have EVER seen. I wanted to like it but with every character in the film screaming out lines with effected voices made me want to just shut it off. I will say that the technical work, like in most of their films is fantastic but this one just does not work for me.
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I always say that my favourite Coen brothers movie is the last one I watched. A slight exaggeration, but as they have had very few real misses in their career it's easy to forget just how great most of their movies are. For me 'Raising Arizona' ties with 'The Big Lebowski' as their single most entertaining movie, and Arizona is arguably the funnier of the two if you are looking at sheer belly laughs. This movie is the Coen's most cartoonish and shows that they learned a lot from their involvement in Sam Raimi's 'The Evil Dead' and 'Crimewave'. The movie is full of fun, clever touches and infectious energy. It just never lets up. Calling a movie "a roller coaster ride" is a cliche, but it's a perfect description for this. The opening pre-credit sequence has more packed into it than most movies do in their complete running time! Nicholas Cage has recently got sidetracked making dumb action movies but back in the 80s and early 90s he was one of the most interesting and adventurous leading men in Hollywood, making unusual movies like 'Birdy', this, 'Vampire's Kiss' and 'Wild At Heart'. 'Adaptation' is a step back in the right direction for him. I hope he continues in this vein instead of say, 'Con Air 2'. Cage is just terrific as H.I. and I haven't enjoyed Holly Hunter as much in any other movie. Together they make one of the best on screen couples in many a moon. The supporting cast are all fantastic, especially John Goodman and William Forsythe as H.I.'s prison buddies. The psycho biker played by "Tex" Cobb is a also a brilliant touch. There are so many memorable bits in 'Raising Arizona' I could be here all day pointing them out. Just see for yourself. There were lots of lousy movies made in the 1980s, the Spielberg/Lucas/Simpson/Bruckheimer/John Hughes decade that dumbed down mainstream movies forever, but there were also thankfully some wonderfully inspired ones like this, 'Blue Velvet', 'Brazil', 'RoboCop', 'Repo Man', 'Eating Raoul', 'Beetlejuice', and 'The King Of Comedy'.
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SanTropez_Couch3 April 2003The Coen's second movie has an innocence that makes it endearing, especially to a non-Coen fan. (I am one, I'm just saying for those haters out there.) The language takes a joy in itself and is very Coen-esque, although overall I was left with the feeling more of Sam Raimi. Some camera moments are like "Blood Simple," like when a dude on a motorcycle drives over a car (directly reminiscent of that camera rising above a body on the bar in "Blood Simple") or those energetic, rapid steadicam shots that are lifted from Raimi.
It's a charming, guilt-free comedy at no one's expense (unlike the mean-spiritedness and superior snobbery of films like "Fargo," where Jonathan Rosenbaum dubbed Frances McDormand's character the Coens' "pet hick"). It's shameless slapstick.
When Cage (the ex-con) and Hunter (the ex-cop) get hitched, they decide to snatch one of Nathan Arizona's little quintets; after all five is much too much for one family. The two get attached to little Nathan Jr., and Cage (his name is "H.I.," as in Hudsucker Industries) has these two buddies (John Goodman and a porky, hilarious William Forsythe), escaped convicts almost literally burped out of the ground, that have their eyes set on Nathan Jr. as well.
Cage is wacky and offbeat, a young, virtually unknown at the time the film was made (probably still trying to shake off the nasal Gumbi accent from "Peggy Sue Got Married"). He's still got that renegade actor quality to him, that over-the-topness that's not quite honed enough, but it fits the material perfectly.
The film is in the tradition of their goofball charmers like "The Big Lebowski" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" -- not as hilarious as the first, and not as episodically plotted (or clever) as the second.
The pleasures here are in the innocent sight gags and dialogue -- Cage's grungy, just-about-mullet and mustache, Goodman's sideburns, Frances McDormand's quick appearance as a white trash wife to Cage's boss. Then there's this oil-covered, apocalyptic bounty hunter intent on collecting the reward for the stolen baby.
By the time the movie's over (it's a quick 90 or so minutes), a baby's been stolen, some animals have been shot, a man's been attacked by dogs, some people have been shot at, and someone held a grenade too long -- and it's the Coens' most innocent movie to date. You could almost say it's tender and sweet.
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ccthemovieman-126 November 2006When I first saw this I thought it was one of the craziest movies I'd ever seen. Twenty years later, I still feel the same way. No matter how many times I view this, I shake my head in amazement at some of the things I see and hear. It's definitely one-of-a-kind.
The wacky characters and outrageous story, of course, are the attractions here but I also enjoyed the low camera angles employed here by the directors, the Coen brothers, and I've always enjoyed Nicholas Cage's strange dialog in the narration.
Everyone in this film - everyone but the little babies - are totally insane, beginning with the lead people, the husband-and-wife team played by Cage and Holly Hunter. I got most of my laughs, however, from the supporting cast of John Goodman and Bill Forysthe as escaped convicts, Trey Wilson as the father of the quints and Randall "Tex" Cobb as "Leonard Smalls." For a pro boxer, Cobb turned out to be a pretty good actor.
If you're looking for something different, something really far out and funny, look no further. -
I'm an action film buff, and frankly I'm not into dramas. Why? Well, the slow melodramatic pace bores me. Also, I don't have the film school sophistication to enjoy the editing and makeup, for example, if the plot and characters are awful.
But I've found the Coen brothers' work accessible, especially "O Brother Where Art Thou". And Raising Arizona was a worthwhile comedy -- original and interesting. I couldn't identify with the protagonists, and there were some slightly surreal bits that dropped me out of the film, and this was definitely a comedy / drama. And I have not quite forgiven "Holly Hunter" for the horrid "The Piano". But there was plenty of wacky and I laughed out loud several times.
Who should see this film:
-- comedy lovers who think a bit of wacky will make up for
a bit of drama.
-- drama lovers. Don't expect a romance.
-- Art film types who will get all the stuff I didn't get
I'll give "Raizing Arizona" a 7 out of 10. -
AlsExGal10 October 2020"Raising Arizona" is a gem from the 80's made by the oddball Coen brothers who definitely do not have any particular style of filmmaking. Who would think that the makers of something as dark as "Blood Simple" could make such a screwball comedy as this? Raising Arizona has a unique style of comedy that doesn't appeal to everyone, particularly if you have no knowledge of the ways and people of the American southwest, since the film is full of thoughts and lines that hilariously exaggerate the customs of the area. For example, after kidnapping an old man at gunpoint, taking him on a wild ride while running from the police after a robbery gone bad, and then falling through the front windshield onto someone's front lawn, the main character takes the time to say "much obliged" to the old man before continuing his wild run from the police. Manners are still important in the Southwest, even to a felon on the run.
As the film begins, we see what appears to be a different kind of love story. Convenience store robber H.I. (Nicholas Cage) falls in love with a beautiful deputy, Ed (Holly Hunter), who continually takes his mug shot each time he returns to prison. Once married, H.I. promises to stay out of trouble for Ed and they decide to start a family. Unfortunately, they discover Ed is "barren" and unable to have a child. They try adoption, but H.I.'s past felonies raise a red flag at adoption agencies, prompting H.I to note that "nature and the prejudices of others had conspired to keep us childless". It just so happens at the same time the wife of rich businessman Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) gives birth to a set of quintuplets. Ed comes to the conclusion that the Arizona family has "more than they can handle" with their new children and decides to kidnap one of the babies, with the help of her husband. And this is all before the opening credits.
Things become even more complicated when two of H.I's prison buddies break out of jail and decide to stay at his place until they can come up with a plan that will be the start of "a crime spree that will encompass all of the Southwest proper - or we'll get caught - either way we're set for life." They invite H.I. to join them admonishing him that they know he's "partial to convenience stores, but the sun don't rise and set on the corner grocer". Note that one of the escaped felons is played by John Goodman. If you haven't seen this film since it first came out in 1987 you might have forgotten this, since this is one of his early pre-Roseanne film roles. Eventually Ed and H.I. come to their senses and return the baby, and we get the impression from the conclusion that someday in the future Ed and H.I. will have children of their own.
This film is full of sight gags and inside jokes that you have to watch carefully to get. For example, Nathan Arizona's commercials for his Unpainted Arizona furniture stores have a tagline of guaranteeing his merchandise is the best and cheapest "or my name isn't Nathan Arizona". As it turns out, we find out his name isn't Nathan Arizona, it is Nathan Huffhines. He changed it because "would you buy an unpainted dinette set from a place called Unpainted Huffhines?". This movie is a light comic piece. Don't let some of the Coens' other darker works dissuade you from seeing this film - there isn't a dark moment in the entire thing. -
bobsgrock17 December 2009With just their second film, the Coen brothers show that they are willing and capable of creating an entirely different film experience each and every time. After their stunning debut with the sharp, enticing crime thriller Blood Simple, what could be further from that than an oddball, idiosyncratic comedy about an ex-con and an ex-cop getting married and stealing a baby from a set of quintuplets because they can't have kids? Two of the most energetic and gratifying actors working today, Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter, go head-on with their outrageous dialog and characters that are so broad and outlandish, it is impossible to not notice them. Both are good in their respective roles, especially Hunter, but some characters weigh down the story and take time away from those we really want to see. John Goodman and William Forsythe play a couple of inmates who know Cage and hope to rob a bank after escaping. There is also a seemingly frightening and terrifying man-hunter on a motorcycle that seems right out of Mad Max. It was these situations that puzzled me and left me wondering what they were doing in this story.
I guess I didn't like the movie too much, but probably only for the script, which is in my opinion one of the weakest of the Coen's. The characters are so broad and outlandish that it takes away from the emotional value able to see in them so we are witnessing more behavior than character. I did laugh at certain sections, but there were several scenes that felt from another movie. I guess I can't be too upset seeing as how I have seen many other Coen brother films I love, but it came as a bit of a surprise to me that this disappointed me. Then again, the Coens have always been a very acquired taste. This one is very, very. -
Coventry30 July 2003The Coen Brothers are genius !! That's not an opinion, that's a fact. I can appreciate and respect all kind of different opinions on all sort of matters, but not on this one. If anyone says the Coen brothers are bad, overrated or not funny, they are just plain wrong. Raising Arizona is the funniest story I've ever seen. It can go over the top as much as it wants and still it doesn't become bad. That's a great achievement only the Coen Brothers can do. Jim Carrey can't do it and neither can Mike Myers. At the same time, this story is emotional and warming. How often do you see a combination like that. Joel and Ethan Coen often use the same actors and actresses. And they're right cause those who play in their films belong to Hollywoods very best. John Goodman, Holly Hunter...and in this film Nicolas Cage !! Nic plays one of his best roles so far. Perhaps even THE best. Holly Hunter is great as always and this role fits her perfectly. I believe it was also written especially for her. No need to say John Goodman and William Forsythe give away flawless performances as well. Try also to pay attention to the rather small part played by Frances McDormand. Raising Arizona is about a criminal falling in love with a police woman. They wanna celebrate their love with a baby but they are unable to have one themselves. Than the news breaks! A rich couple in the area received quintets. 5 healthy young babies. Hi and Ed (our couple) think it's unfair and they decide to steal one of them so they could raise their own little family. Now, the few lines I've wrote appear already in the intro of the movie. I can hear you think : with what else are the going to fill the movie. Well, go and see. If you haven't seen this film yet it's a real shame. It's a must see for everyone!!! Some scenes are so hilarious you'll have trouble breathing, I assure you. This film doesn't need stupid faces or teenager sex jokes to be funny.
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Nicolas Cage is an inept criminal that is arrested for a botched robbery. He falls in love with a cute police photographer (Holly Hunter)and the two yearn to start a family immediately after getting hitched. Adoption seems out of the question, so why not kidnap a baby from a wealthy family that recently welcomed quints into the world. Things get real dicey when an axe-swinging biker brute is hired to find the scoundrels that stole the baby.
The style and wit of Ethan and Joel Coen are beyond compare in the field of directing and writing comedy. Innovative camera work by Barry Sonnenfeld combined with laugh your butt off situations makes this movie a hoot to watch. Hilarious to the max.
Also notable performances by John Goodman, William Forsythe and Frances McDormand. This comedy just does not get old. A laugh riot. -
RAISING ARIZONA (1987) ***1/2
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, William Forsythe, and Frances McDormand Director: Joel Coen Written by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen Rated PG-13 (for violence and language)
By Blake French:
"Raising Arizona" is one of the best, most sunny and uplifting comedies I have ever seen. It is inspirational and detailed, from start to finish. The movie is written and directed by the creators of "Fargo," Ethan and Joel Coen, who not surprisingly have placed together a movie masterpiece featuring some really big laughs while still getting the powerful moral of the story across.
The film stars Nicolas Cage as a criminal named H.I., who recently married a police officer named Ed (Holly Hunter), after meeting her in prison. The couple live in a lonely world with hope and dreams of having a kid, until they find out that Ed can't have babies--leaving them no chance at ever fulfilling their dreams of having a child of their own some day.
One afternoon, however, H.I. gets an idea: he will kidnap one of the babies of the furniture salesman Nathan Arizona, whose wife just had quintuplets. After all, why would they miss just one child when he has that many?
H.I. does this successfully and discretely. He and Ed are as happy as can be. Until some guilt begins to strike him when a $25,000 reward is offered for whomever finds and brings back this child, named Nathan Arizona who is named after his loving father. Soon, however, H.I.'s old jailhouse friends, Gale and Evelle, break out of prison and cause uproar for him. Then a helmet warring biker from hell shows up causing even more trouble. After that, there is an old neighbor enemy of his whom appears knowing his secret. Maybe the idea of raising Arizona wasn't such a good idea after all.
The screenplay features some of the funniest moments in film history. The scenes enjoy the insanity of becoming a live action cartoon and a series of melodramatic happenings. One sequence, in particular, when HI robs a convenient story for Huggie's dippers for Nathan Jr., the filmmakers take advantage of the comedic situations involved with the circumstances here. It includes slapstick humor mixed with high energy and risky stakes as Cage is chased by gun happy policemen, store clerks, one, two and then a dozen vicious dogs, his wife, and his morals in a exiting and hilarious adventure worth the watch all on its own. There are also several other funny moments in the movie.
The performances are also to die for. Nicolas Cage, known for a little heftier of roles, is full of shimmer here. Such a robust flavor explodes from his juicy character. Holly Hunter is also bursting with comic parody. Her character is perfectly portrayed with the right amount of hostility and human understanding. John Goodman and William Forsythe are hilarious as the two prison escapees. Their exaggerated characters fit the film's comic tone flawlessly. Frances McDormand, who was so good in the 1996 satire "Fargo," here is a little underplayed. Yes, her performance fits her character's attitude and witty remarks, but in general, I think her role was too shallow considering her ability.
The ending of "Raising Arizona" consists of a daydream sequence from the mind of HI, a character so hopeless and free spirited the empathy felt for him matches any character in any chosen movie. The dream features a vision that takes place in the future where everything turns out to be okay for him and Ed. While I will not spoil what material it contains, I will say that it closes the movie with a heartwarming conclusion and yet lets the mind wonder on. "Raising Arizona," may only be a zany screwball comedy, but if you look deeper within its many laughs, you'll find something more. A message that will stick with you for some time after the movie is over: never give up hope. Brought to you by 20th Century Fox. -
CrazyArty25 July 2021Zany, oddball, comedy about a childless couple who kidnap a child.
A strong cast (including a very young Nick Cage) but a farcical plot which has not aged well and is not particularly funny.
Disappointing, given the Directors (Coens) and having heard good things. -
Wasn't for me. I laughed once when the blue canister exploded. Most of the movie irritated me. Lots and lots of unfunny, insane behavior and inexplicable screaming. John Goodman looked good, but not for 35. He looked 45. Can't believe the actor who played the furniture salesman died two years after this film was released. He was only like 38 in this movie but looked 58. But I also found him attractive. Anyway, I can see how the offbeat quirkiness of this film was ahead of its time in 1987. Watching it in 2023 just wasn't it. I don't think it holds up. I don't think it passes the test of time. I don't think it's timeless.