Movies I Love: Raising Arizona

                Ok, so in addition to writing reviews of movies I have already seen, I have decided to also write about some of my favorite films. The first one I want to comment on is the Coen Brother’s film, Raising Arizona. Who knew kidnapping a baby could be so funny?

                I have a feeling that throughout this series I am going to come back to the Coen Brothers again and again. I figure what better place to start than the 1987 comedic masterpiece Raising Arizona. This is one of those movies I watched over and over growing up. I loved it. Luckily, Raising Arizona is different than a lot of movies I loved as a kid, it holds up 100%. It’s no Red Dawn. Man I remember thinking that movie was so cool. Too bad, that didn’t hold up. Raising Arizona on the other hand has changed in another way. It was a movie that I laughed at and enjoyed as a kid. Now as an adult I am happy to say, it makes me laugh even harder. So much I didn’t pick up on as a kid is apparent now.

                I am trying to completely avoid hyperbole here so take this to be an honest opinion; every single shot of this film is perfect. Every performance is spot on, and the plot is extremely fast paced and hilarious. I am watching it at this vary minute and honestly can’t see a single wasted shot or bad choice.

                I love the Coen Brothers and will admit to being biased towards them, but in regards to this movie I really feel it is pretty much flawless. Allright maybe there was a bit of hyperbole. There are two tiny mistakes, Nathan Arizona says Nathan Junior slept in jammies when we saw him in a diaper and when H.I. flies through a windshield there is no glass. But other than those two small quibbles, I have no other problem with this film.

                Nicholas Cage has made probably more bad movies than good, but you can always count on him to bring everything to his performance. This is no exception. He is hilarious as the high strung criminal who is completely unable to turn his life around.  On top of that, his narration is perfect and serves to raise the film to an almost poetic level comedy never reaches.  Holly Hunter is perfect as his partner in life and crime.

                The rest of the cast is just as good. John Goodman and William Forsyth are hilarious and way over the top as H.I.’s prison friends.  Francis McDormand has a hysterical cameo as a jealous mother who wants the baby for her own.

                Kill Bill Volume 2 has an incredible fight in a trailer that is great at showing a fight in a small space. As good as it was it was only borrowing from the fight between Cage, Forsyth, and Goodman here. It is an exciting and hilarious battle.

                I love a movie that gets better and better upon repeat viewings and like most Coen Brothers films this is one of them. If for some reason you have not seen this, rent it now.