Arizona Junior

Parentless recidivist H.I. regards prison as his home. No matter it is a partiality or a revenge in his own words, he robs convenience stores; he goes to jail; he talks nice to a parole board; the cycle repeats itself. And finally falls in love with a policewoman, ED. Life goes easy on them at first. They bask on the folding chairs, dreaming to have a youth to share their thoughts and feelings.Then the story abruptly turns sad. ED.is barren. what should they do?

Tempe is a rock place that bears women deprived of the happiness at conceiving babies.Their wombs are barren and hard like the rocks in the desert. Florence,Dot and ED are the victims of the metaphor.One takes fertility pills,another adopts orphans,the other after being turn down adoption,steals a baby named Nathan Jr.

Nothing could be more exciting than a rebirth. The film tells us what a rebirth is like. Push hard through the saturated mud above your head at the 99% risk of being stifled to death. One second delay would be too late. That's Gale and Evelle's narrow escape from the jail. It sounds surrealist. But that's Coens's wit lies. They twist reality and exaggeration into knots to spin our noggins.Snatching a packet of diapers in a convenience store can be a life-or-death chase scene, without mentioning the leather-clad,bonehead,bounty hunter Biker, who can browbeat nothing except little animals.

Troubles arrive in sequence. That's the way the life is. At the end of the film, H.I. and ED returns the Nathan Jr.to his parents.It doesn't belong to them and will never be theirs.Why not keep the dream of having kids go on? If H.I.'s dream of the hellion Biker is not a phantasm, his dream of being blessed with descendants might come true some day.

In despite of the superficially hilarious scenarios, it is a sad story to the marrow. H.I. and ED's sorrow is not skin-deep and can be felt by any of us who puts heart into this film.

The 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.

***

There 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.

The 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?

Pure lunacy is what Raising Arizona is. It's got everything you could ask for in a film; kidnapping, jailbreaks, Hell's Angels, explosions and guns, guns guns. Nic Cage is great in the role of a very befuddled conveniance store robber who falls in love with Holly Hunter's Ed. Throw in John Goodman and William Forsythe as a couple of car stealing, bank robbing brothers and you got yourself scenes that will make you giggle when you think back about them. The entire state of Arizona seems trigger happy in the Coen's eyes. Clerks, cops, and crooks pull out firearms and let loose like the finale of the 1812 Overture. Plus, where else can you hear really good yodeling?