Jan 29, 2012

Trilogy Week #13 - Coen Comedies

The Coen Brothers are one of the best writer/director teams ever, in the history of film. They can seamlessly write for comedy and drama, without the films seeming out of place with the rest of their movie catalogue. These three films show the more humorous side of the spectrum from the Coen brothers. 






Title: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Year: 2000
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: George Clooney, John Turtorro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter
Rated: PG-13

My Review: Loosely based on Homer's "Odyssey." If you're familiar with the Odyssey, you probably have notice the similarities. Like George Clooney and his wife are named "Ulysses, and Penelope" John Goodman is the Cyclops, the three women at the river are sirens, and George Clooney sings "Man of Constant Sorrow" with his character Ulysses means "a man who is in constant pain and sorrow." This movie makes you feel like you're in the middle of the depression. With it's washed out colors & monochromatic scenes. This movie does a great job showing the heat, and dried up money of the economy. The soundtrack is awesome, sitting in a rocking chair sipping lemonade music. George Clooney does such a great job in this movie. This is the first George Clooney movie I saw that made me respect him as an actor. And made me want to watch more Coen Bros. movies. 9 out of 10







Title: Raising Arizona
Year: 1987
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, William Forsythe
Rated: PG-13

My Review: By far the wackiest of the Coen Bros. films. You can tell that the actors were having a lot of fun making this movie. Nicolas Cage movies are hit or miss, and this is a definite hit. This film has great dialouge and hilarious action scenes. The Coen's haven't made another movie like this again. Which makes this one really stand alone from the rest of their films. 8 out of 10

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Title: The Big Lebowski
Year: 1998
Director: Joel and Ethan Coen
Cast: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Bushemi, Julianne Moore, John Turtorro, David Huddleston, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tara Reid
Rated: R

My Review: This one is my favorite of all the Coen Bros. films. Everything in this movie is perfect, from the dialouge, the actors, the camera work, to the soundtrack. There are so many great one-liners from this movie, that if I mentioned my favorite ones, it would spoil the movie for the tiny minority of people who haven't seen it yet.This movie is the Coen's most popular movie, that their is a documentary about the Lebowski fandom called "The Achievers." Of course this is my favorite Jeff Bridges roll, and John Goodman roll outside of the Flintstones movie. In fact John Goodman is in all three of these films. "Shut the fuck up Donny"

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