Rating: 
Summary: Rasing Arizona
Review: Nicholas Cage in Raising Arizona was one of his early comedies and also one of his funniest! Cage is H.I. (or Hi) and his wife Ed (Holly Hunter) finds out that she barren and that she can't have children. At the same time they find that out, they also find out that the king of unpainted furniture, Nathan Arizona, and his wife give birth to quintuplets. Hi and Ed feeling that it was unfair that some should have so much and others so little that they make a plan to take one of the Arizona children and raise him as their own. In a trashy, laugh out loud sort of way, they pull it off only to realize that they had done the wrong thing that they have to bring the baby back. Very funny movie and just loads of fun. This movie is seriously the reason why Jeff Foxworthy made it so big. This is a total backwater hick comedy that keeps you laughing the whole way through. Very funny movie and if you're looking for other great Nicholas Cage movies, check out CON AIR and FACE OFF.
Rating: 
Summary: Love the movie, disappointed in the DVD release
Review: Looking forward to HDTV? If so, don't waste your money on this release of your favorite movie. I have been waiting for quite some time for the release of Raising Arizona on DVD, but a letterbox format just ain't going to cut it. If you are unaware of the difference between a letterbox version and an anamorphic 16x9 version of DVD, I recommend you read http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/ for the info. Quote: "To knowledgeable DVD fans, seeing the terms "16x9" or "anamorphic" on a disc is like having the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. It tells them that in today's blistering consumer electronics marketplace, where change and obsolescence can happen in the blink of an eye, the DVD they're spending their hard-earned cash on is at least a little future-proof. And that's important." Amen!
Rating: 
Summary: A funny, but strange movie!!!
Review: This is one of the earlier Cage movies, here, but one which is truly weird and bizarre. An out of this world premise, which involves taking a young child on a strange trip, however I can't be sure if the kid was kidnapped or not. It's not quite clear. But this is strange from the beginning to the end. The laughs come in the oddest places, but if you like something off the straight and narrow, this has got to be at the top of the heap.
Rating: 
Summary: Raising cinema geniuses.
Review: The one that started it all. *Raising Arizona* is the first of a string of masterpieces continuing all the way up to *O Brother, Where Art Thou?* (*The Man Who Wasn't There* has fallen short of the adjective "masterpiece", in my view.) Joel & Ethan Coen, America's very best filmmakers, sloughed off the apprentice mentality so evident in *Blood Simple* and went for broke in this film, relying on their own creativity to bring their sensibilities to the movie-going world. In this particular case, the sensibility is often akin to the classic Warner Bros. cartoons with Bugs Bunny and friends. This is most evident in the movie's style, with its exaggerated perception, off-kilter compositions, speeding Steadicam, comical close-ups, over-the-top action, and sparkling-clean, eye-watering Pop color. (The DP on this film was Barry Sonnenfeld, who has gone on to direct some very bad films. This movie remains his career-high.) *Raising Arizona* is CINEMATIC filmmaking: the Coens successfully found the fine line between static presentation and overwrought, music-video-style camera intrusion, and they've walked that line ever since. The visuals are one thing. But the Coens also invest their plot and characters with the Warner cartoons' sensibility -- or lack thereof. Chaos, daffiness, and limitlessness reign supreme here, as in the old Warner shorts. The narration is exquisitely faux-literary, by way of redneck hominess: Nicolas Cage lays on the syrup over lines like "The doctor explained that her insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase." And like any cartoon worth its salt, the plot of the movie demands a suspension of everyday moral judgments: an infertile couple -- a former policewoman and her convenience-store-robber husband -- kidnap one of a set of quintuplets from a local furniture-store baron. After all, "they have too many!", so why can't H.I. and Edwina have just one? Heck, they'd be doing the Arizona family a favor! The rest of the story goes in predictably unpredictable directions, ranging from keenly funny to knee-slappingly hilarious. But as with all good comedies, *Raising Arizona* -- farce though it is -- has a serious undertow having to do with the longing for family, and the sadness of people who, for whatever reason, don't have one. Certainly the scene early in the film wherein H.I. attempts his kidnapping while the 5 adorable Arizona Quints gambol about on the floor (with the camera right at their level) will make any childless person feel an ache through their laughter.
Rating:
Summary: Here goes
Review: I hope i can do this film as much justice as the editorial reviewer and others have done. I can not tell you how much I laughed at this movie. 'Now Hi, you go right in there and get me one of those babies'. I thought that was one of the funniest lines in this movie and well, yes i guess it does tend to be black comedy. But, Holly Hunter was very, very funny in this film. And the way she pushes Nicholas Cage around in this film was quite comical. It certianly did invoke my wilful suspension of disbelief and i can almost see this whole scenario taking place although i'm glad it is just fiction. The bad guys are so hilarious that we start to side with them a little. This Nathan Arizona guy from the unpainted Arizona Furniture store, 'or his name is not Arizona' (actually it is not). Well, he has so much and this poor family of police officer and repeat offender hold up artist have so little that it seems like the rich folks should want to share one of their babies with these characters. Oh poor, H.I. why didn't he just go in and ask old Nathan for one of those babies. Oh well maybe him and Hunter will conceive one of their own after all since the baby does get back to its family. Oops, did i give it away? Ok well I won't tell how this happens but really, you should see this DVD it is great.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best comedies ever
Review: I realize that a title like the one above can seem like hyperbole, but this is not overstatement. I have watched hundreds, maybe thousands of movies in my life and this one always stands out. An offbeat comedy about a childless couple who kidnap one of a set of quintuplets so they can have a complete family, this movie is close to perfect from beginning to end. Much as I enjoy all the Coen brothers works, this one always stands out as their best. It is an early gem of theirs, and stars people who were really at the beginning of their careers: Nicholas Cage, Holly Hunter and John Goodman. From the courtship of Hi and Ed to the kidnaping of the Arizona baby to a botched convenience store robbery to a confrontation with a bounty hunter from Hell, this movie is filled with great moments. This movie is a modern classic and is one of the all-time best comedies.
Rating:
Summary: Look here young sportsman...
Review: OMG this movie rules LOL :P Nic Cage is like almost gay symolism with the panties.Almost kewler Coen is asweonme! ----Ninja
Rating:
Summary: One hilarious line after another!
Review: The Cohen Bros. excel at quirky characters, and Raising Arizona is quirky meets farsical. My favorite line? "... on account I got something wrong with my semen." Priceless!
Rating:
Summary: Maybe it was Utah
Review: The Coen Brothers. You either love 'em or you hate 'em, right? There's very little middle ground where these boys are concerned. And that includes the professional critics. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? gets either an F or 500 Thumbs Up. Me, I'm firmly entrenched in the love 'em camp. Sure, their work presents a decidedly grim view of human nature, even in the comedies. Sometimes a little tenderness and humanity do manage to peek through, but that has nothing to do with why I am a fan and student of theirs. What I love is the sheer brilliance and depth of creativity that they continue to demonstrate on all fronts. Take Raising Arizona, for instance. I've seen it 15 or 20 times by now, and I'm still mining its riches. Sometimes I watch it for the obvious things, like the camera work; the trademark low-to-high angles, the framing and composition of nearly every shot, the character's eye views when Hi is being twirled over one of his prison buddy's head or lying on his side on the floor of the trailer, the saturated, hyper-realistic color of the daytime Arizona desert or the nighttime interior of a convenience store. Other times I focus in on the writing. Maybe it's the dialog and it's context, like the bank robbery scene. "All right you hayseeds, freeze and get down on the floor. Well which one is it gonna be? Freeze or get down on the floor?.... Where'd all the tellers go? They're down on the floor, like you told 'em." Or the convenience store escape scene, where Hi and Ed alternate between near hysterical argument and Hi calmly giving driving directions to Ed. Or maybe it's the richness, subtlety, and attention to detail of the storyline; the shopkeeper who starts counting when commanded to ("one Mississippi, two Mississippi, ...) and who is still counting when we drive back by later ("971 Mississippi, ...), the convict buddy who steps back into the trailer to pick up a copy of Dr. Spock after kidnapping Nathan Jr., the growling inmate who is still mopping the floor every time Hi returns to prison, making progress at glacial speed. Or take my favorite recent example. I'm watching the movie with my wife, who is in my opinion, the most talented continuity expert not working in Hollywood. In the middle of the c-store holdup scene, when Hi runs out and jumps in the car, she says, "Where are the Huggies?" A minute or two later, Hi reaches down out of the speeding car and gathers in the Huggies, which were lying in the road. This last time, it was the sound that caught my attention. Not just the music, but the entire sound package. Don't get me wrong. The music by Carter Burwell, especially the banjo, yodeling and whistling, ranks right up there in awesome inventiveness with the zither music of Anton Karas in The Third Man and the work that Bernard Herrmann did for Alfred Hitchcock, and anyone who includes a smidgen of Ode to Joy on the banjo over the closing credits certainly has my vote. But wait, there's more! Pay attention when Glen comes to Hi's trailer to fire him. After Hi tells him to lower his voice, Glen says he'll talk "... as loud as I PLEASE!" When he raises his voice on the word Please, it is the only word that produces an echo from the surrounding desert. Is that subtle enough for you? And I've only scratched the surface....
Rating:
Summary: one of the most interesting comedies I've seen
Review: Raising Arizona is a really interesting comedy, of course that's what you would expect with the coen brothers. Nicolas Cage and John Goodman give great performances in this funny movie. I've seen the movie a few times and it never gets old. The movie keeps my attentin each time.
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