Raising Arizona

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'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.

***

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'.

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?

Watched this again recently and still as good today as it was then.