Posted on 08/11/2011 10:50:44 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
When I was 9 or 10, I watched Raising Arizona on VHS and thought it was one of the weirdest and funniest things I had ever seen. A frequently jailed stickup artist with surprisingly florid diction (Nicolas Cage) and his barren police officer wife (Holly Hunter) kidnap a loudmouth furniture magnate's quintuplet and run into trouble with two escaped convicts and the Lone Biker of the Apocalypse. I didn't get it, really, but I didn't care: It was hilarious and strange, with amusingly quotable dialogue ("I'll be taking these Huggies and, uh, whatever cash ya got") and hummable music (the "Ode to Joy" on a banjo, yodeling) throughout. During my high-school years, I caught up with the rest of the Coens' output and considered myself a fan; their best movie to that point, Fargo, came out just before I graduated and was the first I saw in a theater. I still remember a somewhat pretentious friend explaining before our behavioral science class that Fargo's opening, with a car driving into "nothing" (an utterly blank expanse of North Dakota snow), was a "standard absurdist trope" or something along those lines.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I’ve unfortunately seen a few of their movies, including True Grit and Fargo.
Hated them all except for True Grit, which was the only one I wasn’t sorry I saw (but the original with John Wayne is still the best).
Anyway, I’ve seen enough, so no more Coen brothers movies for me.
Ed McDonnough: You mean you busted out of jail.
Evelle: No, ma’am. We released ourselves on our own recognizance.
Gale: What Evelle here is trying to say is that we felt that the institution no longer had anything to offer us.
I’ve never seen a Coen movie I didn’t like.
interesting...was just having some beers last week with a bunch of friends and we were quoting Coen movies....just sent this off to them.
Raising Arizona and Fargo are classics...The Big Lebowski a good one too.
Good movie, but it had the WORST ending of any film ever made.
It simply quit. Like they ran outta film or their time was up or something.
“Burn After Reading” should have been entitled “Burn Before Watching.” It was one of the worst movies I ever wasted a couple of hours watching!
Seriously? Have you seen:
Millers Crossing. The Man Who Wasn’t There. The Hudsucker Proxy.
All stinkers.
I’ve seen 3 and a half of their movies and was annoyed and bored. Overrated as far as I’m concerned
As to the films, Raising Arizona is one of my absolute favorites, owning largely to its superb cast, wonderfully quirky dialogue, and what is quite possibly the longest opening sequence in the history of film.
Miller's Crossing is also well-acted, and consumed with a menacing darkness that sometimes explodes into violence and still manages to shock you even when you expect what is coming.
Fargo is both funny and dark, and features (typically, for the Coen Brothers) off-beat performances from Frances McDormand and William Macy. Reflexively now, I keep my distance from wood chippers.
I saw True Grit about a month ago and liked it far better than the original, although in the end it is a terribly sad Western story about loss, survival, and loneliness.
Also love Oh Brother, Hudsucker Proxy, Man Who Wasn't There, Fargo, and Barton Fink.
And by the way, the often maligned Intolerable Cruelty is very good imo. It's worth is just to look at Catherine Zeta Jones in all the different outfits. And Clooney may be a tool, but he's a modern day Cary Grant and was perfect for that role.
True Grit was OK. The others are also-rans.
Saw Blood Simple in the theater when it came out. Very 80s style noir. Not so great.
My hope is for the Coens to do a 70s style dystopian sci-fi.
That exactly describes my reaction to their movies, too.
Oh man, you gotta see Fargo! William Macy’s best role!
Faithful to the book. The thing about the movie (and the book) is that it's not about Josh Brolin being chased by Javier Bardem. It's about Tommy Lee Jones realizing he doesn't understand the world anymore.
I really did like Bridges’ take on Rooster. Much rougher, grittier (no pun intended). The first scene, when he’s testifying, speaking in that Sling Blade style. Very jarring.
Good to see someone else LIKED Intolerable Cruelty. I watch it 6 or 7 times in a row when I rented it. I didn’t like No Country for Old Men at all. I don’t get what the fuss was about.
Forgot to mention Lebowski.
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