Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Essential Film, Not To Be Missed, Inexplicably Hilarious!
I've seen this movie countless times and it never loses its appeal. A classic of an almost undescribable nature, part comedy, part adventure, all fun. About a couple unable to conceive children who decide to take one of a highly telivised set of quintuplets off its parents hands (they have more than they can handle). A pair of dimwitted but generally kindhearted escaped convicts, a bounty hunter straight out of a Mad Max movie, a chase scene involving cops, a gun toting convenience store clerk, and lots and lots of dogs make for one hell of an entertaining movie. What adds more to the greatness of this film is the truly cerebral dialogue and the essence of morality in almost every character (no matter how shady they seem). A true classic from the 1980's if there ever was one if you haven't seen this movie you are missing a treat, if you have seen it then you know what others are missing!
Rating: - Quite possibly the funniest movie ever made
I've seen Raising Arizona far more times than I can count. It is, in my humble opinion, next to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove the most original, inventive comedy ever made.The dialogue is absolutely razor-sharp -- plenty of examples are certainly readily available in the reviews preceding this one -- and the camera work is wonderful, as well. I'd rank Raising Arizona a VERY close second to Miller's Crossing in a list of the Coen's best films. It is admittedly not as visually stylish as Miller's Crossing (then again, very few films ever made are), and the storyline is not as cohesive as Miller's Crossing, Fargo, or Barton Fink. However, the film is so full of verbal gems that it definitely ranks as the Coen's best dialogue writing effort. Cage and Hunter are wonderful, and John Goodman and William Forsythe are absolutely perfect as the Snopes brothers. Admittedly, the DVD is nothing very special. All you really get is the more durable medium and a widescreen format. Some kind of "The Making of..." mini-documentary, or better yet, a commentary option with two or three of the actors, the director of photography, or ideally the Coens themselves would have been a priceless addition to the DVD.
Rating:  - Wear panty hose on your head and steal diapers!
Joel and Ethan Coen bring a wonderful comedy into the world with Raising Arizona, probably their funniest film (Fargo is funny, but in a different sense). I loved the dialogue, the insanely mad situations, and the hilarious music. You'll probably be saying, "What the?!?" about a dozen times while watching this movie, and that's what makes this movie wonderful. The whole movie's crazy! My personal favorite scene is Glen's visit to Hi's trailer home. That scene(s) is so overflowing with hilarious dialogue you'll have to rewind the tape to catch it all. The Coens really tried to cram in as many jokes as they could in this movie, and the result is a grand comedy. It looks grainy sometimes, but that's just its style.Also contains a not-often talked about reference to Night of the Hunter, when Hi says, "Sometimes it's a hard world for little things." Did anybody else catch that? Look for the words "POE" and "OPE" in the bathroom, too. That's a tribute to Dr. Strangelove.
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