RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
Found a Bug? Squash It! Report Bugs Here
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / Upcoming / Raising Arizona
Raising Arizona

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Buy Poster External Icon
Bookmark and Share

Raising Arizona (1987)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
89 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

Reviews Counted:47

Fresh:42

Rotten:5

Average Rating:7.6/10

Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins

Genre: Comedies

US Box Office: $0

Synopsis: A childless couple unable to adopt decide that a couple who just had quintuplets won't mind if they steal one of the babies. Thus begins the Coen brothers' madcap romp RAISING ARIZONA. Holly Hunter... A childless couple unable to adopt decide that a couple who just had quintuplets won't mind if they steal one of the babies. Thus begins the Coen brothers' madcap romp RAISING ARIZONA. Holly Hunter stars as Ed, a cop who is devastated when she learns that she cannot get pregnant. Nicolas Cage is her husband, H.I., an ex-con who wants nothing more than to make his wife the happiest woman in the world. So if she wants a baby, she's going to have a baby, one way or another. Heading up the supporting cast of bizarre characters are John Goodman and William Forsythe as crazy cousins who have just busted out of prison, Sam McMurray and Frances McDormand as Ed and H.I.'s swinging friends, and Randall "Tex" Cobb as a motorcycle madman hired to rescue the baby. RAISING ARIZONA is the Coen brothers' most consistently funny film. Carter Burwell's score, replete with infectious yodeling, is relentless, Barry Sonnenfeld's cinematography is beautifully wacky, and the manic dialogue is the brothers' most quotable. The film is a treat for the ears and the eyes, a one-of-a-kind sensation from a marvelous pair of filmmakers. [More]

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Trey Wilson

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Trey Wilson, William Forsythe, Sam McMurray, Frances McDormand, Randall "Tex" Cobb

Director: Joel Coen

Director: Joel Coen
Producer: Ethan Coen
Screenwriter: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Composer: Carter Burwell

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Raising Arizona

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

While film is filled with many splendid touches and plenty of yocks, it often doesn't hold together as a coherent story.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment 1 Comment
11/06/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Has all the classic excesses of a Coens movie -- brilliantly crazed characters, apparently nonsensical dialogue and some fantastic camera shots.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/01/00
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An entertaining, energetic, and stylish comedy about a simple but loving couple who long to be parents.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
11/06/07
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Sharp, inventive and hilarious, with a marvellous cast of Coen regulars.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
03/13/09
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The laughs keep coming courtesy of the many slapstick highlights that litter this fast and furious action comedy.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
08/16/01
Almar Haflidason
Almar Haflidason
BBC

No review available.

comment Comment
01/06/04
Blake French
Blake French
NutzWorld

No review available.

comment Comment
12/02/04
Brian Gibson
Brian Gibson
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Canada)

Great early film from the Coen Brothers. Hilarious, and some of Cage's best material.

comment Comment
03/20/03
Brian Mckay
Brian Mckay
eFilmCritic.com

A remarkable spectacle of overblown characters, sights, sounds and events.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/01/00
Brian Webster
Brian Webster
Apollo Guide

No review available.

comment Comment
08/22/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

No review available.

comment Comment
09/14/04
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti
Filmcritic.com

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen!

comment Comment
03/10/05
Clint Morris
Clint Morris
Moviehole

No review available.

comment Comment
01/10/06
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

A very funny spoof about a colorful couple who must have a child and will try to get one by any means possible.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/01/00
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The film is loaded with marvelous slapstick sequences and quirky character humor. While some viewers may find it too eccentric or too ready to make fun of blue collar America, most will find its comic surprises and unpredictable narrative to be most fulfi

comment Comment
10/14/04
Douglas Pratt
Douglas Pratt
DVDLaser

In a shrewdly calculated move to show their versatility, the Coens made this madcap comedy right after Blood Simple. If their debut was slow and spare, this one has breathneck pacing and hopping banter by terrific Holly Hunter and Nicolas Cage.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
10/31/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Raising Arizona... is an explosively clever and riotously funny exploration of fertility, homemaking, and the working class in the prisons and trailer parks of the desert southwest.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/15/05
Eric Meyerson
Eric Meyerson
Filmcritic.com

A highly original and funny film.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
08/27/04
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Starting from a point of delirious excess, the film leaps into dark and virtually uncharted territory to soar like a comet.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

It's funny, but is it good? Like all the Coen brothers' work, it somehow lords itself over its audience.

comment Comment
03/11/04
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by comments; Australian critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 >> >|
all

Latest News for Raising Arizona

October 17, 2008: UK Critics Consensus: Is Burn After Reading A Coens Classic? Does Eagle Eye Have Enough Action, Man?
In this week's roster of UK cinema releases we have the latest addition to the Coen canon in the CIA comedy caper, Burn After Reading, Shia LeBeouf stakes a further claim to the... More...

November 07, 2007: Total Recall: Welcome to Coen Brothers Country
Before expanding wide on November 21, No Country for Old Men (90 percent) will play in select cities this Friday riding a wave of huge expectations. The Cormac McCarthy-based... More...

February 02, 2006: Coens Aim to Tackle New "Country"
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Joel & Ethan Coen's next film will be an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men." Word is that Tommy Lee... More...

See All

More Movies

Coming Soon in Australia
Tomatometer Percentage Movie Date

56% 56% 9 09/12
66% 66% Away We Go 10/12
18% 18% Planet 51 03/12
70% 70% Religulous 03/12

What’s Hot On RT

Zombieland!

Zombieland!

We talk to the director of the hit zom-com

Low-budget Killings!

Low-budget Killings!

10 Most Profitable Horror Films

Ban Them All!

Ban Them All!

10 Most Controversial Movies

Wild Things!

Wild Things!

Win tickets to the wild rumpus of 2009

Other News

  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Spielberg Hops Away from Harvey Source: Variety
0
  • Tarantino Could Have Directed Green Lantern Source: MTV
24
  • Will Duvall be Gilliam's Don Quixote? Source: Collider.com
26
  • No Hobbit Until 2012? Source: The Wrap
22
  • Don't Hold Your Breath for Hancock 2 Source: HitFix
42
  • Peter Berg Talks Battleship Source: CHUD
2
  • Summit Ponders Twilight Finale Source: Variety
156
  • First Look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Source: USA Today
56
  • Jeremy Renner Talks Hawkeye Possibilities Source: Superhero Hype
14
  • Todd Phillips Talks The Hangover 2 Source: Entertainment Weekly
18
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Friday Harvest: The Road, Avatar, and more!
96
  • Total Recall: Natalie Portman's Best Movies
65
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Vampires and Football Break Thanksgiving Records
42
  • Five Favorite Films with Jesse Ventura
39
  • 10 Horrifically Profitable Films
39
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
28
  • Five Favorite Films with Jason Reitman
28
  • Critics Consensus: Everybody's Fine Is Just OK
28
  • RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Terminator Salvation and a Smithsonian Battle
21
  • Awards Tour: National Board of Review Winners List!
14
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • Director Ruben Fleischer Talks Zombieland
1
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
17
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
11
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
21
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
8
  • RT on DVD: Wassup, Bruno
3
  • Scott Hicks Talks The Boys Are Back
0
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Richard Kelly chats about The Box
2
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
22
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • Raising Arizona at Rotten Tomatoes
  • Raising Arizona at IGN

Fresh Links

Featured
Virtuoso Vistas of The Lovely Bones
Virtuoso Vistas of The Lovely Bones External Link

Techland examines the visual splendor of Peter Jackson's upcoming film.

Animated Oscar?
Animated Oscar? External Link

Hollywood.com ponders whether or not an animated film could win Best Picture.

Wes Anderson on Fox
Wes Anderson on Fox External Link

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes on Twitter External Link

Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.

Competitions
Win G.I. Joe Prizes
Win G.I. Joe Prizes External Link

DVDs, toys and more to give away from the hit action film.

Win Wild Things Tickets
Win Wild Things Tickets External Link

Free double passes to join Spike Jonze's wild rumpus.

Win 9 tickets
Win 9 tickets External Link

20 double passes to win to the new animated film, produced by Tim Burton.

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.