Has all the classic excesses of a Coens movie -- brilliantly crazed characters, apparently nonsensical dialogue and some fantastic camera shots.
Raising Arizona (1987)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:47
Fresh:42
Rotten:5
Average Rating:7.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: A childless couple unable to adopt decide that a couple who just had quintuplets won't mind if they steal one of the babies. Thus begins the Coen brothers' madcap romp RAISING ARIZONA. Holly Hunter... A childless couple unable to adopt decide that a couple who just had quintuplets won't mind if they steal one of the babies. Thus begins the Coen brothers' madcap romp RAISING ARIZONA. Holly Hunter stars as Ed, a cop who is devastated when she learns that she cannot get pregnant. Nicolas Cage is her husband, H.I., an ex-con who wants nothing more than to make his wife the happiest woman in the world. So if she wants a baby, she's going to have a baby, one way or another. Heading up the supporting cast of bizarre characters are John Goodman and William Forsythe as crazy cousins who have just busted out of prison, Sam McMurray and Frances McDormand as Ed and H.I.'s swinging friends, and Randall "Tex" Cobb as a motorcycle madman hired to rescue the baby. RAISING ARIZONA is the Coen brothers' most consistently funny film. Carter Burwell's score, replete with infectious yodeling, is relentless, Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography is beautifully wacky, and the manic dialogue is the brothers' most quotable. The film is a treat for the ears and the eyes, a one-of-a-kind sensation from a marvelous pair of filmmakers. [More]
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Trey Wilson
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Trey Wilson, William Forsythe, Sam McMurray, Frances McDormand, Randall "Tex" Cobb
Director: Joel Coen
Director: Joel Coen
Producer: Ethan Coen
Screenwriter: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Composer: Carter Burwell
Reviews for Raising Arizona
Sharp, inventive and hilarious, with a marvellous cast of Coen regulars.
The laughs keep coming courtesy of the many slapstick highlights that litter this fast and furious action comedy.
Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet.
While film is filled with many splendid touches and plenty of yocks, it often doesn't hold together as a coherent story.
An entertaining, energetic, and stylish comedy about a simple but loving couple who long to be parents.
Great early film from the Coen Brothers. Hilarious, and some of Cage's best material.
A remarkable spectacle of overblown characters, sights, sounds and events.
A very funny spoof about a colorful couple who must have a child and will try to get one by any means possible.
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
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.
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.
It's funny, but is it good? Like all the Coen brothers' work, it somehow lords itself over its audience.
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