Page "Raising Arizona" Paragraph 29

Negative reviews focused on " style over substance " stand against the film.

Variety wrote that " While Arizona 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.