Raising Arizona - Reception

Reception

The film opened to mixed reviews. Among the positive reviews, David Denby of New York, wrote that the film was a "deranged fable of the New West" which turned "sarcasm into a rude yet affectionate mode of comedy". Richard Corliss of Time referred to the film as "exuberantly original". Rita Kempley of The Washington Post gave a positive review stating that it was "the best kidnapping comedy since last summer's Ruthless People. On the film review television show Siskel & Ebert & the Movies, critic Gene Siskel said the film was as "good looking as it is funny" and that "despite some slow patches" he recommended the film, giving it a "thumbs up". Writing for The New Yorker, Pauline Kael wrote that "Raising Arizona is no big deal, but it has a rambunctious charm."

Negative reviews focused on "style over substance" stand against the film. Variety wrote that "While is filled with many splendid touches and plenty of yocks, it often doesn't hold together as a coherent story." Writing for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote that "Like Blood Simple, it's full of technical expertise but has no life of its own... The direction is without decisive style." Julie Salamon of the Wall Street Journal wrote that the Coen Brothers "have a lot of imagination and sense of fun — and, most of all, a terrific sense of how to manipulate imagery" but "By the end, the fun feels a little forced". Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote that "the overlooked form peels away from the slight, frail content, and the film starts to look like an episode of Hee Haw directed by an amphetamine-crazed Orson Welles". Roger Ebert wrote a negative review stating the film "stretches out every moment for more than it's worth, until even the moments of inspiration seem forced. Since the basic idea of the movie is a good one and there are talented people in the cast, what we have here is a film shot down by its own forced and mannered style."

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 90% of 49 critics gave the film a positive review; among the website's top critics, three of six gave positive reviews.

Later writings about the film have been generally positive. Both the British film magazine Empire and film database Allmovie gave the film five stars, their highest ratings. Allmovie's Lucia Bozzola wrote that "Complete with carefully modulated over-the-top performances from the entire cast, Raising Arizona confirmed the Coens' place among the most distinctive filmmakers to emerge from the 1980s independent cinema. " while Caroline Westbrook of Empire declared it a "Hilarious, madcap comedy from the Coen brothers that demonstrates just why they are the kings of quirk". The Dutch magazine Vrij Nederland placed Raising Arizona's bank robbery scene second, on their list of "The 5 best bank robberies in film history", behind a bank robbery scene from the 1995 thriller Heat. In 2000, the American Film Institute had the film nominated for their list of one hundred best comedy films of the twentieth century, nominated by film directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, critics, historians and film executives. The film placed at number thirty-one on the list.