Rating: 
Summary: I love this movie, dontchaknow?
Review: One of the things that I notice every time I watch a film from the Coen Brothers is how much detail they sink into every single character. The pitch perfect performances of the supporting actors in "Blood Simple," how The Dude knew the exact address of a fast food restaurant in "The Big Lebowski," and the undeniably cute accents of the characters in "Fargo." This movie is endlessly inventive and engaging. Each character is so sharply drawn and written, it's a wonder the Coen Brothers didn't cut their fingers open turning the pages of the screenplay. Even the two-minute bit players give great, believable performances, like the couple who want to buy a car from Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy, whom I'm becoming an increasingly big fan of), and they are jinxed out of four hundred dollars on a Tru-Coat that they didn't want. The man calls Jerry a liar, and then he adds the f-bomb, but to watch him say it is so entertaining simply because he says it with such obvious discomfort, as if he didn't want to say the word, but it was the only one he could find to display his distaste for what Jerry had done. There are a dozen and a half perfect moments in "Fargo," and that's just one of them. A lot more involve the conversations between two kidnappers who Lundegaard hires to nab his wife so he can collect the ransom money and use it to buy a lot that shows promising financial profit. Then there's the sweet, light-hearted policewoman named Marge (Frances McDormand in her rightfully Oscar-winning role), who is so undeniably cute, funny, and nice to everyone that you just fall in love with her character. Marge is the one who ends up on the tail of a tan-colored Pontiac Cierra, which was spotted by some witnesses, and is the possible escape vehicle of the two kidnappers, who ended up committing (well, only one of them) a triple homicide after being pulled over for not having their temporary tags displayed in the window of the car, which was given to them by Lundegaard off of his own car lot. Unavoidably, Marge tracks down the origin of the car with the help of a specific phone call that was made, and she ends up having two conversations with Lundegaard, who attempts to keep cool but is so obviously evasive and nervous that he's wound tight enough to snap."Fargo" is such a unique crime caper that it took me two viewings about five years apart to fully understand where the Coen Brothers were taking me with this thriller that doubles as a comedy, but I finally got it. This is the kind of movie that make watching movies such a great experience. A lot of them may be bad, sure, but there are the few masterpieces in the world. "Fargo" is one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Re-thought Review
Review: I had felt deprived because I had heard many people rave about this movie and I didn't see it until March 2001. I ended up feeling disappointed the first time I watched it. It is interesting and well-acted, but it seemed to try too hard to be quirky - like "Northern Exposure" or "Picket Fences" as those series neared their ends. The accents are cute at first, but overdone and wearying. I see this movie as being unable to decide whether it's a murder mystery or a comedy. If I were a teacher, this assignment would get a B- 7/19/03 - Hmmm, I keep pulling "Fargo" out of my stack of VHS tapes, watching it again, and enjoying it. I add another star.
Rating: 
Summary: Annoying and Boring
Review: Geez those Northern accents get to you right away. Dark Comedy? I don't think so. Everyone in this movie talks like a retard because they are all retards! And it is not nice to make fun of the mentally ill. Like a bad Charlie's Angels episode, I found myself rooting for the bad guys because the hero (Frances McDormand) was such a dork. The only way the movie could have been salvaged would have been if McDormand had been the one going through the chipper/shreader at the end. William H. Macy and Steve Buscemi give fine performances, but McDormand is a joke.
Rating:
Summary: They did it again!
Review: Fargo is a true classic. It's one of those movies that is instantly recognized as what it is, a movie that will last. The Coen brothers, proving once again that they have the most off-beat sense of humor in Hollywood(and maybe the world), do a fine job here. The plot never slackens and it moves at a rapid clip for the whole movie. They manage to switch gears quite well, between shocking violence and laugh out loud hysterical humor. This is a result of a fine ensemble cast. Frances McDormand is wonderful in her best acting job yet. The always great William H. Macy(honestly, is he not severely underrated?) is at once compellingly desperate and pathetically funny. The villians of the piece are also very menacing and funny(seeing a pattern? Yup, that's it. Everybody is FUNNY!) The actor playing Macy's father is also well done because he is so believable, so real. In conclusion, this is a classic that will sustain it's power. Oh, by the way, this was the newest movie to be placed on the AFI's hundred best movies list. Just goes to show you.
Rating:
Summary: Fine flick that left me feeling a little cold
Review: Like most of the Coens' movies I had to see this multiple times to appreciate it. The first time I saw it I was swayed by the advance hype and I thought it was just okay; I thought it was a more funny and interesting on subsequent viewings. The high points in my opinion are the dialogue (I have to admit the Minnesota accents make me giggle) and the cinematography which nicely exposes the bleak northern winter. The laconic blond kidnapper is funnier every time I see the movie, and Steve Buscemi's vigorous and vicious performance is also worth watching. William H. Macy's hilarious turn as a squirelly, snivelling, slimy used car dealer catapaulted his career. The low point for me is the casual violence; characters are unceremoniously snuffed out throughout the film. I know that the film-makers are trying to contrast the brutality of the kidnappers with the goodness of the cop played by Frances McDormand, but the violence was so sudden and arbitrary I was seriously apprehensive that the pregnant cop would take one in the belly before the movie was over. Maybe I'm supposed to equate the bleak moral climate of the criminals with the bleak physical climate which is so ably filmed throughout the flick, but in the end the murders left me colder than the expanses of snow. It's interesting to contrast this movie with "Seven", which I loved, and in which the killings didn't bother me as much because there was a purpose behind them, however twisted. In the final analysis this is still a well-put-together film, though -- very humorous in spots even aside from the silly accents, and nicely chilling in both the setting and the treatment of a seemingly simple kidnapping/extortion attempt gone awry.
Rating:
Summary: Coen Brothers Score
Review: Fargo is based on a real life incident where a man has his wife kidnapped in order to collect a large ransom from her rich father but the scheme goes awry and a small town pregnant police chief cracks the case. William H. Macy plays the husband and Frances McDormand plays the cop. The movie is a black comedy and while it doesn't have the in your face humor of an Adam Sandler film, it is down right hilarious. Even though the movie is named Fargo, it takes place in Minnesota. All the actors have Minnesotan accents which are crosses between Canadian and Swedish and you'll find yourself laughing at the local colloquialisms. The plot is twisted and bizarre and the dialogue crisp and inventive. The film has a stark landscape due to the blanket of snow that covers the ground. Mr. Macy is tremendous and Ms. McDormand won a Best Actress Oscar for her effort. Fargo is an original and inventive movie that is independent filmmaking at its best
Rating:
Summary: Over-rated
Review: After hearing so much about Fargo, I decided that I would have to see it. And more disappointed I could not be. Fargo is a rambling, slow-moving movie which features gratuitous (and very graphic) violence, and a nasty under-current. I am not going into detail of the story (previous reviewers have done that quite well), but it is essentially a thriller about a man who hires two hitmen to kidnap his wife. Things of course don't go according to plan, and a trail of violence and dead people follow. People have claimed that Fargo is a classic black comedy - I would call Monty Python and Pulp Fiction black comedies (ie. they qualify as comedy because they are actually FUNNY!). In Fargo I didn't laugh once. Frances McDormand's character is meant to provide the decent human touch in this movie of flawed, evil characters. Instead we get scene after irrelevant scene of Frances engaging in boring conversations and meaningless phone calls. And she says "Yaarrrhh" instead of "Yes" which gets on your nerves VERY quickly - especially as this is supposedly one of the funny in-jokes. The only redeeming factor in this movie is the good performance of William Macy as the car-salesman husband - as usual he plays the nervous, edgey loser type very well. This is a very depressing movie also, with no feel good ending or resolution taking place.
Rating:
Summary: "Whoa Daddy!"
Review: As you may have noticed, the above comment is a completely unoriginal one that is from this movie which I used to sound really into this movie. Oh, and by the way, I am a 17 YEAR OLD TEENAGE GUY who thinks this is the best movie ever made. Yup, it's even better than The Waterboy, you OTHER TEENAGERS WHO ARE READING THIS AND THINK ADAM SANDLER IS KING! Of course, I saw this when I was 15, and that raises questions like, "How did this CHILD see an R-rated movie?!" Well, I saw it on TV, actually. But it's fun to debate about that kinda stuff. So, if you're under 17 and want to see this movie, be illegal and see it! Break the law!
Rating: 
Summary: It is not their best.
Review: Okay, I never thought I would be one of those people who didn't "get" a critically acclaimed movie, but there is a first for everything I guess. Fargo was good. It was entertaining, not particularly funny, but good. If I didn't know about all the hype surrounding it, I would probably give it 3 stars out of 4. Roger Ebert called this one of the best movies he has ever SEEN? Now THAT I don't understand. And you can't say that I just don't "get" Coen brothers movies, because I thought Raising Arizona was brilliant. I just didn't see that in here. Oh well. As for the DVD itself, I was extremely disappointed. For such a revered movie, it had absolutely no bonus material whatsoever. It had the trailer, and that is about it. A complete waste. So I give the movie 3 out of 4 stars, and the DVD 2 out of 5.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully black and hysterical!
Review: By far, the best Coen brothers movie to date (although I have yet to see "O' Brother Where Art Thou?") Wonderfully black and completely hysterical, you don't want it to end!
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