20 Things You Didn't Know About Raising Arizona
7. Its Critical Success Has Improved Over Time
While the film currently sits at a healthy 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film hadn't always been considered fresh.
Many cult classics hit fairly mixed reviews upon release and find greater appreciation much later, and Raising Arizona is no exception.
For the negative reviewers, the film was an example of style over substance, criticising its strange story and oddball characters as feeling like a forced attempt at screwball rather than an organic comedy. Roger Ebert himself gave the film 1.5 stars, opening his review stating that he had a problem "with movies where everybody talks as if they were reading out of an old novel about a bunch of would-be colorful characters."
The film still isn't for everybody by any means, but its wacky style as an early indicator of the Coen lunacy that audiences adore is looked back on much more fondly now their catalogue of films has filled out significantly.