Raising Arizona

You're supposed to like the kidnappers...which ones you chose however is up to you.

Director: Joel Coen
Writers: Joel & Ethan Coen

The plot: and ex convict marries a cop, they can't conceive, she resigns from the force and they decide to steal a baby from a couple who have been "blessed" with quintuplets. Crazy shit of course happens but you're just left feeling bad that the childless couple give the baby back.

Ya boy Nic Cage is back at it again with a pretty clever film about family...at least that's what I think the overall message is. It could just as easily be "don't steal shit" or "steal shit, meet the love of your life", then again, it could also be "if you can't have a kid...kidnap one." Which is a problem in itself really but...everyone's more focused on Split not being an accurate representation of mental illness which..it isn't supposed to be but people are gonna bitch regardless.

Problems with this film, it makes me jealous of 1987. Not because of the simpler time, but because you apparently got free fuckin' M&M's in your cereal. What do we get that's free in cereals now? Nothing. Everything comes at a price and boy do we know it, what with the extortionate price hike in things like Freddo's like, they were 10p in 2000 so that's about 17 years ago and now those things are 25p. Fuck that, honestly, I'm sick of it, who the hell does that frog think he is? I can't afford 25p for a luxury such as that. Fucking 25p, ridiculous. Where was I...oh right, cereal. Yeah, the guys in this film eat cereal and on the box it says Free M&M's. You know, after that bitch about those chocolate frogs the free M&M thing isn't such a big deal...

The birth parents to the stolen child, Nathan Jnr (T.J.Kuhn), are slightly terrible parents. They hear a noise upstairs that most definitely isn't their children and they just sit there looking up at the ceiling. Like...guys, your babies are up there, plus another human being. Please go and check that shit out. There's also the fact that, at the end, when HI (Nicolas Cage) and Ed (Holly Hunter) put Nathan Jnr back, the father Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson) decides not to press charges on these people. I understand why, they explain themselves very well and they don't play victim either. They acknowledge that what they did was a rash decision but they both understand that by doing this, the father could just call the police and send them away. Admirable humanity in people that would normally be portrayed as flat out bad guys. Thinking about it, this is the second film I've seen that makes you root for the typical bad guys. All about the charm of the character.

Side note, I noticed a recurring thing in the film, in each act there's a book shown. "Dr Spock's Baby & Child Care. Now I'm not sure whether that's just a name choice and isn't related to anything but when I saw it, immediately I thought about Star Trek. Thinking about it, this book as a constant in the film, being picked up by everyone who wants a piece of this kid, shows that none of them know anything about handling children. There's a scene toward the end where Gale (John Goodman) and Evelle (William Forsythe) overhear Glen (Sam McMurray) pretty much scream that HI and Ed took the baby and the only way that he won't go to the police is if they give him the baby, and they decide they want that baby so they can give him back for the reward of $25,000. They tie HI up after a fight and leave him there while taking the baby. After a moment or two Gale comes back, crushing cheese balls that I'm guessing are the American version of Wotsits, into the carpet, picks up the book and leaves, continuing to press cheese dust into the carpet which would be a pain to clean. This scene, aside from the cheese ball crushing, is actually quite funny, the camera angles and choreography are beautiful and pair it with Gale walking back in slowly to just pick up this book is what makes it better.

I liked this film. Probably wouldn't chose to put it on but if I was flipping channels and it was on I'd probably watch it but aside from that..nah, I advise you go see it if you haven't though, it's on Netflix if you don't wanna go outside like.

Update: I was looking up the price rates of Freddo's because it's just...hard to believe such a little frog can cost so much but...I found out they may be going up to 30p! Who the hell has that sort of money for that? How rude.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-cadburys-freddo-bar-price-hike-toblerone-brexit-gaps-owner-maker-mondelz-international-a7525086.html

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film please go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.