Favorite Coen Brothers Movie

[Scott]

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
The Man Who Wasn't There(2001)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The Big Lebowski(1998)
Fargo (1996)
The Hudsucker Proxy(1994)
Barton Fink (1991)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Raising Arizona (1987)

Having just watched The Hudsucker Proxy last weekend for the first time and having Bad Santa opening this weekend (they wrote the story) I thought it would be a good time to see what you think of the Coen Brothers (Joel and Ethan) who hail from Saint Louis Park, MN.

My favorite has to be Fargo.  Great movie, great plot, good farce on MN life...but a close second is O' Brother.  I love the look and feel of this movie so much, the soundtrack is great and George Clooney is awesome.

I can honestly say I have never not enjoyed one of their movies...genius

[apokolips]

'Raising Arizona' is #1 for me, with 'Hudsucker Proxy' second, and 'O'Brother' third.  'Big Lebowski' is in my collection, but it hasn't had a spin since the day I got it.  As for Fargo, I hate to bring down the fire, but I really didn't like it.  At all.  

[SilverZ]

The Big Lebowski goes down as one of my all-time favorite movies. You have amazing characters, from John Goodman screaming tirades about "watching his buddies die face down in 'Nam so you can enjoy this family restaurant!" to John Tuturro as Jesus the pederast, to Jeff Bridges, fat and stoned. More quotable than any other of thier movies, IMHO.

Try watching Matrix Reloaded after you realize the guy standing next Merovingian before the Chateau fight is Woo from Big Lebowski. "He pee'd on YOUR rug, dude."

It's also one of the few movies that really captures the 'uncool' side of Los Angeles - bowling allies, diners, etc. I work around the corner from Dinah's, which is the diner they shot one of the Nihilist's scenes in (where its revealed it's HER toe that was cut off). Great stuff!

"Stay the hell out of Malibu, Lebowski!"

J

[jokabofe]

big lebowski and fargo are my two favorites, but it looks like bad santa might be making a run for the top spot, that movie looks too funny from the clips i've seen on tv.

[Darby]

The Big Lebowski.  It's unstoppably watchable.  

[Darth Paul]

"The Big Lebowski" and "Raising Arizona" are two of my favourite comedies of all time.
"Fargo" is just a great movie period.
And don't forget their debut "Blood Simple".

[Scott]

http://ladykillers.movies.go.com/main.html

Who's going to go?  We might actually go to a movie tomorrow, toss up between Eternal and LadyKillers...

Thoughts?

[Mikey D]

Has to be The Big Lebowski.  That movie just ties the rest of my collection together, man.

[DoctorPadawan]

"The Big Lebowski", easily.  I don't think I quote another film (even more than the SW films) more than I do that movie.  

Just the other day, someone was talking about Lenin in a casual conversation and I just started going "I Am the Walrus?" over and over.  The fulfilling thing was the fact that the guy talking actually *got* the joke and just looked at me and said, dryly, "shut the f**k up, Donnie."  

"You want a toe?  I can get you a toe, Dude."

[SilverZ]

Well, did ya'll see Ladykillers? I caught an afternoon show on Friday (as unemployment allows me to do, often) and really, really liked it. It's been savaged a by a lot of critics, but that's expected.

And 'Waffles, forthwith' has been added to the all-time-great quotes pantheon. What is it with diners in their movies, anyway?

[Scott]

We saw Ladykillers today...good not great but good.  I love Tom Hanks (who doesn't really???) And I thought he was excellent as the Professor.  One thing that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the swearing.  I usually don't care either way but to me it was out of place.  It was classic Coen Bros though, flawed characters funny little in jokes and ten dollar words.  Fast Talking con men and ironic little twists and turns...good movie.  Not my favorite of the year but in the top 2.

[Rob]

I've liked every one of their movies that I've seen...and I thought ladykillers was terrific.

[SilverZ]

Ended up seeing it a 2nd time this week. Garth Pancake and Mountain Girl are growing on me as favorite awkward characters, and I'm assuming that somewhere on an SW message board somewhere on the net, there are at least a dozen "Darth Pancake" profiles by now.  

[Matt]

Saw The Ladykillers this weekend, and I gotta say, it didn't do too much for me.

It was okay.  I like Hanks in everything he does, so it wasn't him.  I'm not at all a fan of Marlon Wayans.  I do like J.K. Simmons (Garth Pancake), mostly from his scene-stealing turn as J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man, but I could do without the bathroom humor, so that kind of turned me off there.  The General and Lump were alright.  Stephen Root ("Milton" from Office Space) was tragically under-used here.

I did like the ever-changing facial expressions on the portrait of the old lady's late husband.

It just seemed a little too mean-spirited or something, I guess.  Eh--the Coen Brothers flicks have always been hit-or-miss with me, and I hate to say, they're mostly misses.

I guess I don't have as much of a Cinemaddiction as I thought I did. . .  

But, back to Ladykillers--anyone here ever see the original, British version, from 1955, starring old Ben Kenobi himself as the Professor?


I didn't care much for the new one, but it has picqued my interest in the old one, for some reason.  I'd like to see it sometime.

[Rob]

I'm not at all a fan of Marlon Wayans.

Even after his riveting performance in Requiem for a Dream?


Or maybe that was Keenan-Ivory, or SW-1, or Damon...  I can never keep my Waynes brothers straight.