Thanks for the memories!

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This movie is special to me. I find myself watching it over and over and whenever I meet so I else who loves it too I feel like I'm connected to them someone. It's a true cult classic. This is the perfect role for Nicholas Cage. A tung and cheek, goofy role. Highly recommend

Early into this movie, I began to long for the crispy, witty dialog and funny scenes of the great comedies of the mid-20th century. A little longer and I longed for the hilarious antics of the screwball comedies and frantic escapades of the movies of yore. And shortly, I pined for the clever, funny and wonderful plots of the old comedies. In the absence of any and all of that, "Raising Arizona" is little more than a stupid conglomeration of skits. If there is any real humor here, its disguised by nitwit characters in a dumber than dumb story. This was one of the hardest films to stay with, just to see how it ended. How anyone can find this enjoyable is beyond me. I thought about bailing on it twice, but then I wouldn't be able to be fair in a review of the film. I stayed, and my review is that this film was a waste of time – in its making and for anyone who watches it. The only character that comes close to any humor is Nathan Arizona Sr. (played by Trey Wilson) – but just in his early scenes. For clever and funny writing, I could think of only one line that might get a smile from a few viewers. That's this one when Leonard Smalls (played by Randall Cobb) visits Nathan Sr. Smalls, "You wanna find an outlaw, you call an outlaw. You wanna find a Dunkin' Donuts, call a cop." The Coen brothers tried to use techniques that were very funny in original films of decades ago, but all flop here. One is a haphazard police chase with continuous shooting that hits nothing. Another is a chase in and around, up and down, and through different rooms in a house. This is a dumb movie, with mostly dumb acting, a dumb script, dumb scenes and a dumb story. Audiences of the day, and the critics, didn't think that much of the movie then. But as society seems to dumb down in succeeding decades, this movie has viewers who enjoy it. I wonder if most have ever seen any of the great comedies of the past. The film does have a touch of sickness about it, in toying with various crimes as humorous. This is a dud of a movie,

The Coen Brothers are normally known for being the creators of very dark films-even when they're primarily comedies, they will almost always be a dark comedy. However, "Raising Arizona" is a little bit different. It definitely contains a few of the Coen Brothers' typical trademarks, but it is much more lighthearted and joyous in nature. Don't get me wrong, there are a few dark moments, but I do not believe that any of the Coen's other films have nearly as much heart as this film.This is a very entertaining and funny movie. While not every single joke works entirely, and most of the humor manages to be very slapsticky, there are still plenty of moments of absolute hilarity. Certain comedic scenes seem like they are going to be somewhat cliché, but the Coen's manage to surprise and startle with their brilliant and inventive comedy. The film is also shot beautifully, which is yet another of the Coen's trademarks. Every single film of theirs that I have seen is visually stunning (especially "The Hudsucker Proxy", the only Coen Brothers film that I can say has nearly as much heart as this one), and "Raising Arizona" is no exception. Some of the visuals are surprisingly surreal, and the use of wide angle lens increases the bizarre comedic tone.The performances are also awesome. Although it is easy to laugh at Nicolas Cage and say that he is a silly, over the top actor, this film proves that he has quite a bit of talent. The rest of the cast is great as well, especially John Goodman, who provides the funniest performance in the movie by FAR. There are also wonderful performances from the likes of Holly Hunter, Frances McDormand, Sam McMurray, William Forsythe, and M. Emmet Walsh (who I happily recognized was from an all time Coen's classic "Blood Simple"), who has a very brief role but is excellent regardless.If there is any Coen Brothers film that you should show to your family, it is definitely this one. Although it does have dark and violent moments, it has enough heart and humor to make it an overall feel good classic.

You gotta give these brother filmmakers, 10 for originality. When you go into any Coen brother's film, and I haven't seen many of theirs, you know you're going into something, where they even came through beautifully on the True Grit remake. This here was their second film, worlds apart from the brilliant baby, Blood Simple. The movie is just colorfully entertaining and crazy, from the word, "Go" with great and enjoyable performances to boot. Cage shows us again, how versatile he can be, critic Roger Ebert, calling him the greatest actor, alive, which has me thinking in some ways, may'be he he actually is. He's a repeat ex con who falls for police photographer (Hunter, who gives such a captivating performance, as she does in everything. As not being able to conceive, what does she have hubby do? Steal a baby of course, and this they do, from a score of them, belonging to a big wig couple. Soon they are being sought out by a war hog tracker (Randall Tex Cobb) who you'll never forget, where also Cage's happy family life, is disrupted by the loud intrusion of two escaped ex cons/friends (Goodman and Forsythe-wonderful) who make the dirtiest escape you'll ever see. There are some hilarious moments of wonderful writing in this off the wall peace, a kind of satire if you will about reform, and the American dream, where Hunter makes it so clear, that she wants a kid, where to her dislike, Cage can't keep off the straight and narrow, a scene reminiscent to Natural Born Killers, for some reason, where he steals huggies, and whatever cash is left over in the till. Not every one's gonna like this film, but those that do, it'll be more a case of love, where again these talented brothers, shown us what they're capable of, second time around, and it's originally impressive. What's quizzical, is the original's title's meaning. Again, you won't forget the war hog. If you want escapism and brilliant satire, this is the film to watch, but it will grow on you, and warrant a second viewing. Soundtrack is great.