I have always been a fan of the Coen Brothers. I have not always liked all their films but I’ve always found them interesting. I’ve never seen Intolerable Cruelty though so who knows. Raising Arizona is the first one I ever saw of theirs.

Raising Arizona is the story of Hi, played by Nicholas Cage, and Ed, played by Holly Hunter. He’s a crook, she’s a cop, they fall in love and marry. They try to have kids and find they can’t so Ed makes Hi kidnap one of the newborns of a prominent couple who just gave birth to quintuplets. Hijinks ensue.

The Good...

The cast, headlined by Cage and Hunter, are uniformly good. Cage has become something of a punchline of late but he has always done the over-acting thing and he was really quirky yet subdued here. Hunter is awesome.

The Coens are quirky but they make interesting films that look at different parts of America, and human nature, we don’t usually get to see. I like their directing style.

Not So Good...

This one feels like it ends a little abruptly.

It was almost a little too quirky, it was starting to feel a little forced.

Worth a watch.

All photos via IMDb.com