Fargo

Rating:
Summary: Oakey-Dokey
Review: Weird,Quirky,off the wall,I loved it. A car dealer's plot to have his wife kidnapped and held for ransom goes somewhat awry. This movie's characters,from the bumbling kidnappers to the pregnant Police Chief(Frances McDormand) are a real trip. The story line is great and sometimes bizarre. It's a fun movie.

Rating:
Summary: A Warning
Review: Warning: This film is usually promoted as a "dark comedy." It isn't. Rather it is a dark, very violent crime drama in which the actors get the occasional chuckle for the use (and eventual overuse) of the flat, nasal, accent characterized by many in the upper mid west and plain states. The gimmick succeeds but gets tiresome after the first 20 minutes or so.

Otherwise this movie is very well acted, especially by William H Macy and the especially fine Francis McDormand whose character is really the moral center of the story. The drama is taut, and the snowy landscapes haunting. It is well worth a look, but don't expect anything even remotely resembling a "comedy."

Rating:
Summary: Oh Yah.
Review: I was not prepared for what this movie had in store for me when I saw it in the theatre in 1995. I just knew it was the Coen brothers and that I liked their other films. What I got was a great film, just like Raising Arizona is. A perfectly "normal" film where everything is low key. If you are from the mid-west, the humor and setting will appeal to you (I am, sad to say, not living in the mid-west right now). Now, if Fargo would just be released on DVD everything would be really great. I think it's a crime that it's not on DVD yet! This is a must have for any film collector.

Rating:
Summary: A movie with everything
Review: What is it that distinguishes a great film from any other? The acting, the writing or perhaps the directing? I suppose any great film should contain elements of all three. I guess what I am, more specifically, trying to ask is 'what makes a film entertaining?' For me it has to either make me laugh my head off, cry my eyes out or scare the pants off me. I want it to reach out of the screen, pick me up from my seat, and take me with it. I want to be involved in it. I want to be sufficiently involved to care about how the story will resolve itself, I want to care about the characters. In short, what I want is a profound emotional experience. Once every blue moon a film comes along that manages to deliver on all of these fronts and for me one such film is the Coen Brothers 'Fargo'. Based on a true story? - Who cares. The paths of two painfully ordinary people are brought together by the most extraordinary of crimes. A domesticated car salesman and voraciously hungry, pregnant police chief are drawn together through a bungled kidnapping and the fatal chain of events that both precede and follow it. Put on your winter woollie's, throw another log on the fire and sit back and watch extraordinary filmmaking in the form of Fargo. "Don't you know there's more to life than a little bit of money?"

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies
Review: This was one of the funniest, cleverest movies I have ever seen; I've watched it about 5 times so far. I never would have thought a movie with some (not a lot of) gore and "bad" language could be so exquisite. I think there are some requirements for appreciating this movie: you must enjoy irony, sarcasm and black humor; you must enjoy good acting, but overall, you must be very intelligent! That's why everyone does not get it.

Rating:
Summary: Murphy's Law in Effect
Review: Fargo is a movie with a not too subtle lesson: crime doesn't pay. It not only doesn't pay for the criminal; but, it doesn't pay for the intended victim. Jerry Lundegaard, played by William H. Macy, has hired two less than intelligent criminals to kidnap his wife. He needs the ransom money from his rich father-in-law to get out of some serious money trouble that he has gotten himself into at the auto dealership where he works.

Shortly after Jerry employs the services of the kidnappers Murphy's Law kicks in with a vengeance. His wife is hurt more than he expects she will be, his son has a very difficult time dealing with the abduction, his father-in-law decides to become a vigilante, and the criminals renege on the deal.

I'm sure everyone knows the axiom about the best laid plans of mice and men. It is on obvious display in this movie. Fargo shows that there is no such thing as a perfect crime, that getting caught is much easier than getting away.

The acting in Fargo is first rate. The accents are a bit much; but, if that's how people talk in the northern plains, then at least they kept the realism. Any number of actors in this movie could have won Academy Awards. Frances McDormand did win one for her portrayal of Marge Gunderson, the pregnant police officer that uncovers the plan.

Fargo is not for everyone. There is a lot of violence. I don't think many people will be disappointed though with the acting, story, and script of Fargo.

Rating:
Summary: brilliant !
Review: I have watched this movie at least ten times - and still love it. It is very clever, classy and brilliantly acted. In fact, the more you watch it, the more you pick up on - like the "ting -ting -ting" car doors and the black humour.

Not one to watch "en famille" but truly excellent.

Rating:
Summary: I thought Fargo was excellent, funny.
Review: Fargo was a movie I really enjoyed. The Coen brothers outdid themselves. If you want to see a really funny movie, with a little blood and gore Coen style, buy Fargo.

Rating:
Summary: A Movie Worth Watching 100,000 times, then some more
Review: Ye darn tootin'. That's the name of the game in Fargo, a spellbinding thriller brought to you by the same people who brought us Rasing Arizona.

Fargo is a different kind of thriller; it has black humor(it's actually funny seeing a poor kidnaped woman wonder around aimlessly because she has a cloth over her head), it has a certain dialect("Ye darn tootin'") and not to mention a great plot mixed in with some fine action and even mixed in with some great and stellar acting.

Not to let myself give away the plot, I'll give a few points: A car salesman(William H. Macy) wants his wife kidnaped for money. One of his workers called Shep Proudfoot, hires two people(one including Steve Busemi) to do the dirty work. Along this many things happen, which of course, a cop(Francis McDormand) goes to the spot to check things out.

The cop is probably one of the best parts of the show: she's pregnant, she likes food, and her accent really helps. She is just cute. During an example here, when she investigates a shooting, she looks at the deceased, says "I'm gonna puke" and then realizes how hungry she is. Herself and the sheriff talk about food right over the horrible accident like it was nothing. The director of this film did this so greatly.

There is plenty of action, and all of it helps. And there is so many details: blood on the snow, how everyone in the town talks(their accent), facial expressions, neat and expressive dialogue, "Accordion King" posters, camera angles, and the ever good presence of Francis McDormand.

The film believes that this is "a true story" that occurred in 1987, not to mention at Fargo, North Dakota. The whole movie is based in winter, and it actually helps. The snow gives this movie an original existence.

To "read between the lines" is a good phrase to this movie; once in the action, you'll feel welcome and will be watching the movie in anticipation, waiting for the next thing to happen. But if you didn't look into the surface of the movie enough, then you'll get an average shady thriller flick. Don't worry, though, the "Ye darn tootin" and "Ja, ja" will keep you interested long enough.

Fargo is one of the best thriller films combined with tricky yet neat dark humor to come along in a loooong time. It's worth every cent of your ticket.

Rating:
Summary: Fargo--A movie that you can watch over and over again...
Review: Someone please tell me why The English Patient won best picture and Fargo did not? Fargo is by-far the better of the 2 and the best movie of the year.. I even recall several critics agreeing with me on this subject. Fargo is the story of a car-salesman who gets into financial woes and decides to have his wife kidnapped, hopeing that her rich father will pay the ransom, and as any Coen Brother movie goes everything goes wrong, and it does. Frances Mcdormand really stands out as the pregnant chief of police who closes in on the kidnappers, and William H. Macy is equally excellent as the car-salesman caught in a bind. Not two many movies can capture the viewier as well as Fargo can and not many movies can show you what human nature is really like as well as Fargo can either. The only real disapointment is that Fargo is only available on VHS and not on DVD. So watch this movie and laugh and the villans in one scene, and set with mouth agasp the next.