Rating: 
Summary: Only the Coens!
Review: The Coen Brothers are among the most technically proficient filmmakers in Hollywood today. "Fargo" starts out quietly, with an ominous prologue informing the audience that this is a true story, and the names have been changed to protect "the dead." (It a widely known secret that this story is a complete work of fiction.) A single car plows slowly through the hostile Minnesota winter landscape, towing another vehicle as the music builds from an innocent accordion solo to an ominous orchestral overture. This is the essence of the Coen Brothers' movies: we're going to mess around with your expectations. Our "bad guy," Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy's star-making role), is one of the biggest twits to wear the title "villain" in a long time. He's nervous, incompetent, and receives absolutely no respect from anybody he meets (deservedly so!). He's a car salesman (of course) in some serious financial trouble. True to form, the Coens never tell us exactly what the trouble is -- it's better left to our imagination. But Jerry has hired two crooks to kidnap his wife so the wealthy father-in-law will pay the ransom. The kidnapping is frightening, and the aftermath turns horrifyingly bloodly. Jerry's house of cards begins to fall when Marge Gunderson (Frances MacDormand, winning her Oscar), sherrif of Brainerd, arrives on the case after three Minnesotans are murdered by the kidnappers. Marge is far from the dashing "hero" we get in so many Hollywood flicks -- she's seven months pregnant, waddles from meal to meal, and takes delight and comfort from the little things in life. Despite her morning sickness, Marge is a heck of a detective, and soon she's tracking down our dim-witted villain. What makes "Fargo" such a phenomenal movie are the little details that it gets just right. The Coens capture the look and sound of Minnesota perfectly, and the unique Minnesota accent has never received such a loving nudge in the ribs. There's just something hilarious about two Minnesotans bundled up in enough snow gear to clothe a ski team observe that it's going to be a cold one . . . tomorrow! MacDormand and Steve Buscemi (Carl -- "kinda funny lookin') are veterans of the Coen Brother movies, but the rest of the cast inhabits these roles like to the manner born. "Fargo" reminds us what an American hero truly is, and how so many of our goals are caught up in the foolish pursuit of money. Along the way, it makes us laugh and frightens us out of our skins. After you see the movie, ask yourself which is more horrifying (or, which is more hilarious): the wood-chipper, or Mike Yanagita?
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Sceenplay, Haunting True Story, The BEST!
Review: Fiction doesn't get any better than this, and the fact that the story you're about to see is TRUE makes it extra chilling! -- A desperate family business failure conceives a plan to fake his wife's kidnapping to extort money from his millionaire father in law. The plan takes several derailed turns and ends up a multiple murder mess (some of it gorily depicted!). The entire fiasco is calmely unravelled by a super-pregnant but "with-it" inspector, who in the end can't believe that "all this actually happened over a little bit of money". -- Your jaw will drop after finishing this drama-tour-de-force... they don't come any better than this one!
Rating:
Summary: Funny as Hell
Review: Funny as hell is a good comparison: this comedy is rather dark...yet funny! The best features of the film were the lady detective (forgot her name, but she got an Oscar for this -- deservedly) with her exaggerated Minnesota accent and the "funny-looking kinda guy", Steve Buscemi (remember "Airheads", "Con Air" and other films where he plays noticeable parts but you always forget what his name was. He's your epitomous "funny-looking kinda guy, but forgot what's-his-face"!), and all the Scandinavian names. Mr Macy is also great in his role, probably his best-exposed so far. I don't think this movie has a terribly big social value, or a source of learning, but it's very well made and written to encapsulate the small-time lifestyles on the fringe of America. I've seen it thrice, and I'll watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favourites, scary, horrific, funny
Review: This one has it all - gore in the snow with the wood shredder, humour with a pregnant cop having morning sickness (don't forget those accents) - an incredible likeness of a car salesman i once met, who puts the undercoating on even if you don't want it...a classic - worthy of the awards it received.
francis mcdormand plays a pregnant cop in this one. she has such a matter of fact attitude about everything, that it doesn't even really phase her to see dead bodies, and she handles the morning sickness gracefully and openly.
you will probably be reminded of many car dealers you've dealt with with william macy's character. i remember joking with a friend that the car salesman never really go talk to finance about what they can do to lower the price, they really are talking about last nights game, or something that happened over the weekend, but it's all a mind game they play with you to think they are you friend/pal.
steve buscemi...he and his partner !and pretty screwed up, but the way they get rid of the body is actually so shocking that it made me laugh........i'm not sure how they thought they would conceal the evidence, but oh well, such is the mind of a killer eh?
Rating: 
Summary: Satirical thriller with atmosphere
Review: Fargo is a totally original thriller with sharp turns and pop-up surprises. The cop's a woman (Frances McDormand), and she's pregnant. The perps are psychos of course; there are three of them and each is a different breed of psycho. William H. Macy is a car salesman who dreams up a scheme to cheat his rich father in law out of a million dollars by getting some degenerates to kidnap his wife. He's a white collar sociopath who always lies whenever his lips are moving unless there is some very good reason to tell the truth. One of the degenerates is a big silent guy (Peter Stormare) who kills people as one squishes bugs. The other (Steve Buscemi) is an ugly little bantam who lies and cheats and kills and steals and whines until finally somebody puts him out of his misery. This is Fargo, North Dakota, where people are country and it's cold and not very sophisticated. The movie makes gentle fun of the locals while guiding us to identify with them. McDormand eats a whole lot of Hardee's and Arby's and greasy dishes from the cafeteria piled high on her plate. She's eating for two. She loves her husband and he loves her. They lie in bed at night and watch TV. She's the police chief, affecting a self-effacing, aw-sucks, I'm not too bright (but I really am) style reminiscent of Tyne Daly in TV's "Cagey and Lacy" from some years back. Her husband Norm is a big guy who cooks for her and is an artist who paints wildlife. One of his duck paintings becomes a postage stamp. They all say "Yaw" a lot. The forlorn cold and desolate landscape of North Dakota is an Americana locale not used cinematically since perhaps Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973). The script and direction are tidy without being too flashy. Everything is designed to surprise or bemuse the audience. Even the accents. There is the requisite quota of bright red blood; plenty of bullets puncture flesh and split bone. There's some gutter sex and a few shocking sights (one of the perps stuffs an unfortunate into a wood chip machine). All in all it's a carefully crafted thriller with an artistic veneer, nicely photographed. It's clear that Coen and Coen have watched the movies of Atom Egoyan, Gus Van Sant, David Lynch, Oliver Stone, etc., and here pay them the sincere compliment of imitation with variation--or is it the other way around?
Rating:
Summary: Classic black comedy, dontcha know?
Review: One of the best black comedies ever made, "Fargo" is a wonderfully entertaining (and thought-provoking) film that explores the stupidity of criminals and the seedy underworld that lurks beneath our wholesome surface...in this case, of Great Plains America. The film begins with a completely hare-brained idea for a crime: car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) hires two dim-witted goons (Peter Stormare and the always-interesting Steve Buscemi) to kidnap his wife so that he can soak his rich father-in-law, who owns the dealership he works at, for the ransom money. Unbeknownst to the would-be kidnappers, Lundegaard is after more than a pay day - he plans to use the ransom money to finance a business deal he's been cultivating. He'll even toss in a brand new Oldsmobile from the dealership if the kidnappers go along. It's easy to see this low-IQ deal will go wrong, but suffice it to say that it goes so very violently, tragically wrong that the results are actually darkly comical. Macy, as Lundegaard, is brilliant as we see him trying to keep his best car-salesman smiling face on a situation that has spun totally out of control. Of course, no review of this film would be complete without the requisite glowing praise for Frances McDormand as the nice-but-irrepressible (and VERY pregnant) Marge Gunderson, the small-town cop who's investigating a triple homicide done by two people in a brand new Oldsmobile that just happened to be wearing dealer plates from Lundgaard's dealership. McDormand makes Gunderson immensely likeable and sweet, but gives her the tenacity of a terrier and a backbone made of pure spring steel. Her interview scenes with Lundegaard are absolutely priceless. Still, at the end of the film, after Gunderson uncovers the truth - the whole seedy, unbelievably stupid truth - about the triple homicide, she just can't understand why people would do such a thing over a "few dollars", as she puts it. That's what makes "Fargo" so profound - it's a cultural disconnect between the kindly, "dontcha know" friendliness of Northern Plains America, where crime is practically non-existent, and people so low they'd put their family at risk for a few bucks.
Rating:
Summary: A great piece of film
Review: There's a reason the Coen Brother's recieved such wide acclaim for this movie. It's among the best movies ever made, although very off-mainstream (which can be good). It has previously been released on DVD (1998, Polygram Video), but has been out of print from around the same time. I just got my hands on the original, which was a poor quality DVD, but I expect this release (2000, MGM/UA) to be much better.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely on my Top Ten of all time list!
Review: I admit, the first time I saw "Fargo", I was less than impressed at the beginning...however, this film really has layers to it that you begin to unpeel like an onion...this cast is terrific! Especially William H.Macy and Steve Buscemi. My husband always wonders why I enjoy this film so much when I really didn't care for "Pulp Fiction". Maybe it's because the Coen brothers didn't feel they needed to gross the audience out to make a film that is compelling dramatic comedy. Jim and I are forever quoting dialogue from the film: "Where's Pancakes House?" "Jose Feliciano - got no complaints!" and of course "yer darn tootin'". One thing I wish they'd explained in the film was what Jerry Lundegaard did with that $310,000 he stole from GMAC before the film took place. Did he join an expensive country club, or make a bad investment or what? If anybody knows, please let me know, it's killing me! Excuse me, I think it's time to pop the film back into my VCR!
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Movies of All Time
Review: Fargo is an absolutely brilliant movie that everyone shouldown. The DVD doesn't offer much of anything but the film is stillpretty awesome. It's worth a look for anyone who hasn't seen it. Everyone is outstanding and this film should have won Best Picture in 1996.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Story
Review: Wow, when I saw this movie last year I couldn't believe how good it was; all of the actors made the movie so good! If you liked "A Simple Plan" then you will LOVE this, it is ten times better. And if you haven't seen Fargo yet then buy it now, because I promise, you won't forget it.
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