Ben says: Joel and Ethan Coen's first outing on commercial celluloid is a bit shaky. The pacing lacks somewhat in the first hour, leaving you waiting for moments like the dead-end line (you'll have to see the movie to understand), but the story itself is archetypal Coen brothers territory with misunderstandings through a lack of communication, quirky characters and some brilliant throwaway lines like the discourse between Dan Hedaya (Julian Marty) and M. Emmet Walsh as the unnamed detective where Hedaya tells Walsh he has a job for him, Walsh replies "As long as the money's right and it's all legal...", to which Hedaya replies "It's not really legal", and Walsh rejoins "As long as the money's right...".

It may seem a little odd to include a film from 1984 in a list of new reviews, but this is supposed to be a new print of this film, although it seemed very crackly through most of it. Even so, it was one of the few Coen Brothers movies that I haven't seen (that number still includes Barton Fink, to my shame), and so deserved to be included no matter where I saw it. Overall, I liked the movie, I could see that Fargo is in some ways Blood Simple 2 as there are a lot of parallels to be drawn between the two movies, but it's also obvious that the brothers have honed their cinema-craft to a much finer point now.

If this movie comes to a screen near you, I would urge you to see it, but not to be disappointed in a journeyman piece that doesn't alternate between having you roll about with fits of laughter and biting your knuckles in tension.

Ben gives it:

last updated: 3rd November 1996