Rating: 
Summary: breathtakingly cinematic, but essentially flawed-storywise
Review: To me, Fargo is wildly disjointed. It tells approximately three stories. But only one of these stories has a likable, humane character deserving of interest or sympathy. Because the emotional investment is so much greater in one story than in the others, the film cannot achieve a satisfying collective. However, there is so much good in this film that despite my overall lack of satisfaction, I feel that it is important and relevant. The engrossing story I'm referring to is the one of Marge (Frances McDormand) a character so fascinating and so well-played by McDormand that the screen feels devoid of life during scenes she is not in. She is a small-town cop- pregnant and consequently and unapologetically a big eater. She is also smart and witty, but inexplicably (and this is where an intriguing, mysterious element plays in) devoted to her dull but loving husband, Norm. She is kind and humane to the people around her. And when she investigates the grisly highway murders of a traveling family, she responds to it as a cop and a human being. Marge is clearly the best story- the most involving and with the most nuance. I wish the Coens had decided to make one movie about Marge. Unfortunately, Marge shares screen time with two stories connected to the highway crime: One involving Jerry (William H. Macy) a possible orchestrator, and another involving the actual murderers themselves: Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaer (Peter Stormare). The story of Jerry evolves into miscalculation. As a portrait of male desperation and middle class idealism, I found all of his initial scenes weighted with a sad but potent social commentary. However, towards the end of the film, Jerry develops into a monster with no compassion for anyone- his cheery malevolence played to comic effect. I chortled but I didn't feel. No longer did his story seem like the lost American dream; Jerry was a cruel schmuck who got what he deserved. Stripping Jerry of his humanity is the biggest miscalculation of the film. The story of Graer and Carl is highly disturbing, gratuitously sexual, and funny in a way that makes a laugh seem like the ugliest emotion you have. There *is* one moment of true, unbridled hilarity: a beautifully observed scene where Carl pestures Graer in a car...the context of menace, boredom, and attempted friendship creates a deliciously anxious scene of dialogue. The rest plays out like a horror comedy, with Graer and Carl losing any facade of human emotion and turning into comic book characters of exaggerrated and violent evil. The movie beckons the question: can violence be funny? I think it can but only if it is used as a medium for a larger point- not the point itself. In Pulp Fiction, when Bruce Willis's Butch searches for the largest weapon to save his mortal enemy, it is a powerful, funny touching moment, not just because he moves from a bat to a samurai sword, but because he's ironically coming to terms with his own humanity for his enemy via an act of violence. In Fargo, when Carl's legs protrude out of a wood chipper, it feels like empty shock.
My qualms with the film's essentials should not be taken lightly, but neither should the breathtaking beauty of its technique. The Coens employ gorgeous music by Carter Burwell. The opening credit, beautiful and tragic, simply walloped me. And the cinematography of Roger Deakins is pitch-perfect. I can't stress how beautiful this movie is on an aesthetic level. I just wish that the Coens had trusted Marge and the vision she represented. Then they could have made a truly great film.
Rating: 
Summary: Fargo
Review: I would recommend Fargo to anyone whow has a sense of humor. This dark comedy is for an intellectual who sees the underlying humor in a film about kidnapping and murder. William H. Macy, Frances McDormand, adn Steve Buscemi are excellent in this film. If you haven't seen it rent it or better yet buy it and watch it over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Haiku Review
Review: Pregnant cops and the
Best use of a wood chipper.
They DO speak like that.
Rating:
Summary: Ten. Ten stars. Oh. My. God.
Review: The Coen brothers rock. Frances McDormand rocks, like big time. Here we are in Fargo, North Dakota where winter means Winter, and a doofus car salesman's scheme to get money by kidnapping his own wife goes wildly and horribly off the mark, resulting in one, two, three...four? Five? I forget. LOTS of murders in a comedy of errors that are based on a true story. How can this much bloodshed be drop dead (ahem) funny? Easy. Give the story to Joel and Ethan and turn them loose. It's classic Keystone Kop stuff raised to cinema art.
And McDormand. Omigod. Talk about deserving the Oscar she got for the role! After this movie, viewers will forever think of her as Marge, the pregnant small-town sheriff who is suddenly but oh, so laconically, finds herself faced not only with morning sickness, indigestion, and a brainless deputy, but also with a case of multiple murders. She is appropriately deadpan with a Midwestern accent, an offbeat view of life - and will always be remembered for the scene in which she points to the badge on her hat to announce her official title, since the guy she's come to arrest can't hear her above the roar of the now-iconic wood chipper.
See. This. Movie.
Now.
Rating: 
Summary: Watch it all right down to the credits copyright text.
Review: Fargo is based on a true story, just make sure that you watch ALL the credits too. As a piece of art-house cinema Fargo manages to rise above its restrictive budget by the powerhouse acting that is on display here. Truth be told this Coen opus does come very close to pausing at times and certainly the introduction of characters that come out of nowhere does not really mean anything to the plot except to expand on the other character's development a little bit more. Fargo can also be deemed unnecessarily over-long. Certainly the running time of nearly two hours may be a bit overestimating its minimal outline. The plot is actually very simple. A man hires two hoodlums to kidnap his wife so that her father will pay over some ransom money. However things do not go according to plan and all out mayhem enthuses. What Fargo does is to go outside of its core theme to encapsulate more about the characters, their lives and connections. It sort of builds itself outwards before drawing all back in together for the finale. This is done quite creatively at times with very many interesting set pieces, remarkable dialogue and some very memorable brutal and hysterical scenes. Fargo is the Coen Brothers most simple premise to date, but it is also extremely well acted and you can tell that everyone had a lot of fun making it. It is also EXTREMELY violent with some GORE than does shock the viewer. At other times the violence is played more for fun (seeing one of the hoods go get a plaster for his cut finger in the middle of a violent kidnapping is just typical of the black humour on display here). Fargo does make you feel for the characters and certainly everyone is pretty much fleshed out and it is a film deserving of its acclaim, cult status and also remains one of the Coen Brothers's most accessible work to date. Good fun but a little stretched at times.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Mystery!
Review: Call me confused, but when I first watched this movie, I took it seriously as a drama and not as a black comedy. I still found it to be very good, suspense filled movie. A well deserved Academy Award for MacDormand and what I thought should have been one for Macy.
Rating: 
Summary: As Banal As The Characters It Depicts
Review: The story and characters in this film are frankly too bland and boring for this film to be of any interest. Too many screen writers these days seek to advance the vulgar as the object of high quality cinema: unfortunate. Please Hollywood, spare us from watching over-advertised films covering the monotonous lives of average yokels living in the middle of nowhere with an IQ lower than 80; I've watched more interesting lives play out on "Cops" for free thank you. A movie on the lives of brainless middle-class nobodies who no one would bother remembering but for this mediocre film. The good sheriff saves the day story is getting old; especially when it's about someone whose personality is as broad and flat as a dime. And what is it with the retarded language?! Sesame Street has more stimulating conversations than the moronic dialogues in this film. Is this film a real sleeper? Oh you betcha! It's kind of funny lookin'! Non-educated!
Rating:
Summary: Evil really is banal.
Review: I'd seen Fargo before on VHS. It really is a great movie. I can't explain why it moves me so much, but it has something to do with the utter ordinariness and simplicity of the "good" characters compared to the banality and drivenness of the "bad". It's like, you really can live well if you have a clear conscience. If you do good and live a regular life, not lie, not steal, take care of your neighbor, etc. It's so obvious in this movie. And I just LOVE "Margie" and her kind of matter-of-fact, unsentimental, un-selfconscious police work. There's no rabid intensity like in "normal" cop movies. It's all like real life.
Rating:
Summary: MASTERFULL!!!
Review: This Film is A tasty dark comedy. If you take a look at the 1-star reviews for this movie, you will find a bunch of conservative republican housewifes blabbering about how innocent people dying is not a funny subject. YES IT IS! This DVD serves up a good trivia track and an interesting yet Coen-less commentary track. Still Mr. Deakins is a genious in his own right so we all could benefit listening to him. Buy this now. Ignore the no good reviewers that put down this academy award winning, AFI's top 100 of ALL TIME, flick.
Rating:
Summary: A Review Haiku by Todd Marrone
Review: A funny thriller,
incredible characters
and unique setting.
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