Raising Arizona (1987) First Time Watching! Full Movie Reaction!!

Bad Lieutenant 2 is a great Cage movie imo.

Korny

I haven't seen any of his newer films in years but I think I just might have to go see the new "Renfield" he's doing.

Millers Crossing is also a huge one. The Coen Bros take on the gangster flick. It’s terrific.

Stan the Man

Yeah, you could be right. Didn’t occur to me at the time. Loved ‘A Serious Man’ but I’m not sure it would be particularly effective as a watch along experience. But either way, I was happy to chime-in about ‘A Simple Plan’.

David Wilkins

As for Nick Cage movies, I've recommended it before.. The Color Out of Space (Sci Fi/Horror movie).

Samolina Pilchard

Lots of good Cohen Brothers to choose from that you haven't seen. There really isn't anything such as a bad Cohen bros. movie (although some are better than others). Some of my favorites and recommendations (from what you haven't seen): A Serious Man Barton Fink (also with John Goodman and John Turturro) Blood Simple (their first, and with Frances McDormand, a starring role this time) Burn After Reading Inside LLewyn Davis Also a bit of trivia for Raising Arizona, spray painted on the men's room door where Gale and Evelle are combing their hair are the letters POE and OPE- this a reference to the recall code in Doctor Strangelove.

Samolina Pilchard

I always felt like this movie lives in it's own world, like there is barely a character in this film that doesn't come off as wacky in some way. This is one of the rare movies I'd be willing to see a sequel done for if they managed to get everyone back so we could see how H.I., Ed and Nathan Jr. turned out years later.

The Cohen Brothers are always hit or miss with me. They're really tied in with the Raimi Brothers. The two families got started together. They collaborated on a few flicks. CRIMEWAVE and THE HUDSUCKER PROXY. Both with Bruce Campbell, but in great bit parts. But I love RAISING ARIZONA. I'm glad you guys dug it. And the tattoo was a symbol for what Hi could become. Some sort of divine warning. Or at least that's how I took it. * Also, they did flicks called both BLOOD SIMPLE and A SIMPLE MAN. I wasn't the biggest fan of BLOOD SIMPLE, but I loved A SIMPLE MAN.

Philip Davetas

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, hoping your next Coen Brother's film will be "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" I think it will follow this film nicely.

Michael Chavira

I think they were actually thinking of A Serious Man, which IS a Coen Brothers movie. But they could've been mashing both A Simple Plan and A Serious Man together.

Tyler Foster

I'm not much of fan of Nicolas Cage's acting, but The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with Pedro Pascal is a great watch as well as Willy's Wonderland.

Mr. Chumpus

I would like to recommend the movie Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) It stars Kathleen Turner and Nicolas Cage.

Robert H

In my mind he is his father. HI looks to be about mid 20s and I'd put Leonard in his late 40s making him plenty old enough to be his dad. The identical tats seals the deal for me. Plus for me it makes a better story.

softshoes

First time seeing this and I really enjoyed it! Nick Cage is great in it. I also liked him in Leaving Las Vegas which is decidedly not as wholesome and feel good as Raising Arizona. Honestly, I never much liked Cage when he became a meme and just known for his over the top reactions.

Jeffrey Miller

So many great Coen Brothers movies still to go. Glad you enjoyed this one. It really blew my mind when I was young. Trivia: the guy who played Glen was also in Breaking Bad and the Sopranos, both times playing an oncologist. In the Sopranos he's the doctor that Furio threatens at the holf course. "You got a bee on a you hat."

Marcus Cato

You guys should definitely watch Blood Simple. It features M. Emmet Walsh (the gum chewing loudmouth) as a private investigator and he gives a fantastic performance.

Bennett Holleman

So far as your closing mention of Coen brothers’ films, it’s ‘Blood Simple’. That was their first feature, and it’s fantastic. Please react to that one at some point. Frances McDormand has a starring role in that one. Also, you mentioned another title (A Simple Plan) by mistake, but it’s another hugely recommended reaction. It’s directed by Sam Raimi, but there’s a Coen brothers connection: he is good friends with the brothers, and the story is set in Minnesota during winter. Since they are from the area (and had recently shot Fargo there) he enlisted their advice during the production.

David Wilkins

Give me that baby, you warthog from hell! 😶

David Wilkins

That is a spectacular detail...

Steve Mercier

I think the biker/manhunter whom HI dreams of before it’s revealed he's actually real, and why they end up having matching tattoos, is because the biker IS HI, or rather the dark, criminal part of HI's nature that HI fears will emerge and destroy the family. It's that same impulse that compels HI to leave Ed and Junior (though he falls asleep writing the goodbye letter) before he ends up hurting them. It also means that when HI kills the biker at the end, he’s finally become a good and decent person. I don’t know, maybe that’s all too English Majory for a movie that is very deliberately intended to be a live action cartoon, and succeeds brilliantly. HI particularly was inspired by Woody Woodpecker, I gather, and again, that tattoo would suggest that to be correct.

VivendoBem

Ever since seeing this in the theater I still find myself quoting lines from this movie, especially "mind you don't cut yourself, Mortichie." when ever someone breaks or drops something. :D

Vwlss Nvwls

Or maybe Leonard and HI were brothers, because Leonard was not that much older than HI.

Vwlss Nvwls

Saw this movie on VHS when I was a kid, and it completely warped my understanding of what a movie was...wait--they can do that? They can show it that way? They can have that perspective? (Okay--that's bullshit...I most certainly didn't use the word perspective when I was 10 years old.) It's hard now to pick out a favorite from the Coen brothers--maybe The Big Lebowski, maybe No County for Old Men--but this was the first, and so it remains special to me.

Steve Mercier

Further great Cage: Adaptation (although you should watch Being John Malkovich first), Bringing Out the Dead, Moonstruck, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Valley Girl, Vampire's Kiss, and Wild at Heart.

Tyler Foster

That is an interesting theory, especially with a comment somewhere else in the movie about having good role models as a kid. However, I also think it's very possible with the Coens, it was just a non-sequitur joke, both about coincidence, and in the larger scheme, how HI and Leonard are spiritually or cosmically linked.

Tyler Foster

I love how in the scene when HI steals the Huggies, and he is running through the supermarket, you can hear the same song playing over the Supermarket sound system, but in a Muzak version. :D

Vwlss Nvwls

I saw this with my mother in the theater the summer I graduated high school, when I went to visit my mother in West Virginia. We also saw The Untouchables and The Secret of My Success that summer. It was a good, fun summer.

Vwlss Nvwls

This is the Coens Brothers movie I've been waiting for. 😊 Glad to hear you're feeling better, but take all the time you need to shake back. We're not going anywhere. ✌️

ShadowVessel π

If you recall the bikers talk with Arizona he tells him he has history of selling kids, $30,000 in 1954 money. I'm pretty sure biker boy sold HI when he was little, explaining the same tattoos. Making HI his son. By the way are you really Dan and Sam or are those your "code names."

softshoes

Now that you guys know you like this brand of Coen Brothers humor (and sentimentality) I recommend you proceed with all due haste to THE HUDSUCKER PROXY, which is both a great example of the Coens’ sensibilities and something of a gateway to filmmakers like Preston Sturges and Frank Capra.

Jason Chirevas

For peak Cage I'd suggest Face/Off, Matchstick Men and Con Air

Odd Thomas

Also, I've mentioned this before, but Joel Coen was the assistant editor on The Evil Dead. Both Joel and Ethan co-wrote Raimi's second movie, the misfire Crimewave that everyone involved has sort of disowned, and Bruce Campbell (face not seen) acted in a fake trailer that Joel and Ethan made in order to finance their debut picture, Blood Simple. Later, Raimi co-wrote the Coens film The Hudsucker Proxy. That's why the "Deadite" shot of Mrs. Arizona finding the baby missing is in there: an intentional nod to Evil Dead.

Tyler Foster

Never saw this film, I'm not a fan of Nicolas Cage but you have to Watch "Red Rock West" and "Face Off" !!! Another Great Frances McDormand is "Blood Simple"

Florian Meier

The fact that they wrote Barton Fink (a brilliant, mind-trip of a film) while suffering some writer's block trying to finish Miller's Crossing (a brilliant gangster movie) to me is one of the most amazing feats of screenwriting genius in cinematic history. To be that talented must be fun.

Greg

Still crossing my fingers you do manage to do their entire filmography, and go chronologically at a certain point. I've said it before and I've said it again: while there are a couple of misfires, I promise the movies nobody ever talks about will be Death Proof-style revelations for you. They're two of the greatest American filmmakers and there's at least six *amazing* movies (Hudsucker Proxy, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, The Man Who Wasn't There, A Serious Man, and Burn After Reading...I think you both saw True Grit already?) you'll miss if you only do the biggest ones (and that's just *my* six...I'm sure others will be just as enthusiastic about Barton Fink, Hail, Caesar!, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs...)

Tyler Foster

Love this movie! I gotta recommend another Nicolas Cage film, Pig (2021), incredible film

Ken Veader

"Son, you got a panty on your head." Greatest chase scene ever. Mesmerizing.

Erwin Quiachon

Sweet! Although my fave Coen brothers film is O' Brother Where Art Thou.

Odd Thomas

the dogs kill me every time...

Louis Ferdinand Celine