Raising Arizona

Running time: 92 mins

H.I. McDonnough specializes in two things: robbing convenience stores and going to prison. After meeting his police officer wife, however, H.I. must try to master fatherhood. Of course, there's always a hitch, and this time it's the fact that he and his wife have kidnapped a baby (one of a quintuplet set) from the local furniture czar, Nathan Arizona. Director Joel Coen and producer/brother Ethan (of Fargo fame) have taken comedy to its heights in this masterpiece from the '80s. On many of the hot picks for a very long time, this hilarious, offbeat comedy scored big with audiences and placed Nicolas Cage and Holly Hunter on the map of actors to watch for (and we can see where they are now). Raising Arizona clearly defines both the Coens and director of photography Barry Sonnenfeld as mavericks. With the Coens' own brand of scriptwriting and the precision camera work of Sonnenfeld, it's a wonder there hasn't been a new section devised in the video stores next to Hitchcock. Given a few more films on the ol' resume, and perhaps we'll see. --Mike Rabehl