Blood Simple (1985)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

100% flawless texas grit and grain from the play button. Deadly sinister, plot thickens like cured flower rosin post press, only this looks better Never gets old. Timeless piece by the brothers to be reckoned with. Outstanding performances all round and dramatic camera work to top it. 10 out of 10 and I'm not selling nothing!

It really shows that this is the first film the Coen brothers made. While it is watchable, and some parts do becoming gripping, this ultimately is a film i have no desire to re-watch.The script is decent for the most part, but there are some of the cheesiest scenes that I've seen in a long time sprinkled in the movie. The themes of what is good, and what is right, money is the root of evil, and people in positions they are woefully unfit for are prevalent throughout this film. The characters are well written, and you understand all their motivations, however I find pretty much everyone in this movie to be quite bland, but that's probably because the acting is atrocious. The best actor in the movie bar none is M. Emmet Walsh. He is the only person in the movie that actually has fun with the role. Everyone else sounds like they are just reading off of a script from start to finish, and in a contest to see how serious they can sound. There are two stand out moments when Walsh has a scene with Dan Hedaya, and later Frances Mcdormand that features really good acting for the most part, and a sense of atmosphere, but that's really it.I was shocked when i saw that Barry Sonnenfeld was the director for cinematography because it's all over the place, it really feels like a mixed bag of sorts. There are a couple of good shots, some decent shots, and then some really bad shots. Like i said, it just jumps around all over the movie. You go from long continuous shots with an almost speed up pace, to drawn out scenes with jump cuts galore. The editing is pretty bad in my opinion.Like wise, i was equally shocked when i saw Carter Burwell made the music. I don't know what exactly he was thinking, but this soundtrack is laughable. It sounds like the music you would hear when you walk through the living room and your mom is watching one of those Saturday night LMN movies. It just does not work here at all to me.I do like the special effects they use. It looks very nice, and apart from one scene where it's very obvious that it's not blood, it works throughout the movie.This is something that i would expect to see as a made for TV movie from 1998, however as it was the Coen's first movie i wasn't expecting a masterpiece to begin with. I'm glad i can add this to my Watchlist, and i encourage anyone would loves the Coen's to see it, but i'll stick to their later, more refined works.

This is another "film noir" signed by the Cohen Brothers, who sign the direction and the script. One more on a sizable list, as they like the "noir" style and a clever twist of cynical irony. However, this film isn't new and I don't know to what extent it will age well, or it will turn into a minor work of Cohens' cinematography.The film has many interesting aspects, mainly in the most technical questions. Cinematography is very elegant and cleverly uses the light and shadow, high contrast, washed colors and car headlights. Although I don't have any data in my hands right now, I dare to hypothesize that they have used wide-angle lenses during filming. I'm just guessing. However, the main problem of this film is the script.The whole plot is based on a love triangle between Abby, her lover, Ray, and her husband, Marty, who decides to kill them, driven by jealousy, corrupting a private investigator to do the dirty work. But things end up going bad for Marty and everything gets complicated, as the plot gives several twists. The virtual absence of soundtrack, the focus on dialogue, the atmosphere of latent suspicion between characters and their moral ambiguity are characteristics that we can see, and that are usual in "noir" movies. This is all very good and would have been even better if there weren't problems in between: to begin with, the film takes too long to engage and arouse our interest. In fact, the beginning is too slow to have a significant initial impact. Dialogues can also be very boring. Finally, there is another problem: it is absolutely loaded with holes. If I were a CSI technician, it would have been the quickest and easiest criminal investigation of my career.About as the actors, I liked them overall, but I was not impressed. John Getz and Frances McDormand, despite being the main actors, didn't shined, doing only what they had to do. Dan Hedaya had the task of giving life to an obnoxious but fundamental character, and I liked his work. However, I think M. Emmet Walsh deserves more prominence than them. It's through the cynical and obtuse look of his character that we see the film (he works, partly, as a narrator) and it's he who assumes preponderance in the way events unfold, giving him a protagonism that would hardly have had if wasn't the case. The actor really struggled, so the character can almost be absolutely repellent by embodying, in a visual and palpable way, his dubious morality and lack of scruples.In short, this is an interesting worth-watching movie but may not please most of the audiences, as it's rather slow and takes it's time to develop. However, being one of the first Cohen's films, it's a milestone for their careers.

Highly imaginative film that should please cynics and maybe existentialists. No need to echo the serpentine plot provided by others. What impresses me is how each of the four main characters is undone by their own self-enclosed world. Ultimately, each has his or her own fumbling reality that trust, love, or even hate can't bridge. Take Ray's love for Abby. Ultimately, he's undone by a web of conflicting emotions resulting from his own inability to bridge out from himself. In short, he's trapped in his own reality by a lack of trust in her and her steadfastness. At the same time, she herself flounders inside her own unstable perceptions. Anyhow, the neo-noir is done in superbly stylistic fashion that carries the storyline even when pacing slows or developments become murky. And catch that barren Texas countryside that mirrors the characters' predicament. Moreover, the performances from a bunch of then unknowns is accomplished, especially from the slimy Walsh. All in all, I wonder how many other brilliant indies have been thwarted for commercial reasons, particularly during Hollywood's fabled "Golden" period. Fortunately, the Coens persevered.