d2cheer

Same here Burn After Reading is brilliant and get better each time I see it.

The only one I have not see is Ladykillers. Hail Caesar is so fucking bad I barely made it through.

bunkaroo

I also love Burn After Reading. One of the best "goofy" Coen movies.

I love that there are such varied tastes for their movies. I think it goes to show they continue to take chances and try new things. I was excited to see Hail Caesar and while it didn't do anything for me I still applaud them for giving it a shot.

zekeburger1979

I've seen every Coen Brothers film and I dislike just one, The Ladykillers, so that gets my vote.

auto

I'm old enough to remember when everyone thought Hudsucker was their worst flick.

Mabuse

Indeed I do as well. It's been mostly forgotten that Hudsucker was lambasted when it came out. The talk was that this turkey would kill their careers.

Troy Stiffler

Nothing will ever kill their careers.

The Coen Brothers are like Woody Allen - in that their budgets are so conservative and prudent, that they can make whatever they want. And, within those conservative budgets, they get to make the exact movies they want to make. When you keep your budget low enough, you'll never lose money.

A lot of filmmakers are set on producing big and expensive ideas. Or they have a very hard time making the movie they want to make with a low budget. It's akin to people who want to spend every last penny of their budget on a house and car. And those productions fall apart all the time, as studios can't always put up $50M+ on a film. But when you're producing films for $5M to $20M, and you have an established name, that's a safe bet and the financing is always there.

...

Anyways... I refuse to name the worst Coen Brothers movie. Burn After Reading's best parts are Pitt's demise and the brilliant no-nonsense resolution in the CIA office. A lot of other good stuff in there. I'm surprised you guys didn't like it.

Nesbit

I need to see No Country for Old Men again. I've only seen about half of their films but would have to put that as my least favorite. Saw it once when it first came out and didn't connect to it AT ALL.

Fargo and Big Lebowski are my favorites. Love Burn After Reading.

bunkaroo

I wasn't really a big film guy until around when Fargo came out which exposed me to the Coens.

Do you recall what the biggest reasons where for panning Hudsucker? I find it highly entertaining and beautifully constructed.

RichC2

I remember the negative reviews for Hudsucker as well, and also remember really enjoying it when it was released on VHS and being confused by the reviews, it had everything I liked in a movie at the time (mind you I was a kid).

The main review issues were it was too much of a screwball comedy with no heart, it was style over substance. Roger Ebert gave it a 2 out of 4 saying part of him wanted to give it a 4/4 rating, and the other part wanted to give it a 0/4 because it was just the Coens showboating.

I think mostly critics didn't know what to make of it, especially since it was following Miller's Crossing and Barton Fink in the Coen brothers portfolio. But it wasn't as jarring of a shift as Fargo -> The Big Lebowski.

bunkaroo

OK that's starting to sound familiar. I don't get the "no heart" criticism but if that's true for some, then Hail Caesar would be guilty x 10 because that really felt like soulless showboating to me.

islandclaws

I have always hated Raising Arizona. I will always hate Raising Arizona.

My answer is Raising Arizona.

Mabuse

I will give one genuine criticism of Hudsucker Proxy; it flagrantly rips off Gilliam's Brazil in several sequences.

From what I recall of the critics, and I'll do a little more research tomorrow, one of the chief things was that the 1930's screwball comedy style of the film was SO FAR from what was acceptable at the time. Tarantino was hot on the scene, and it was all about hip, self reflexive realism. And here was this film with really stylized, deliberately anachronistic dialogue. Today other directors (like Wes Anderson and Peter Jackson's Kong, for example) have brought the style back, but at that time critics didn't like it.

Thrush

The Man who Wasnt There. Its utterly unwatchable.

At least with Lady Killers and Cruelty you can sit through them.

DWilson

My experience with "The Man Who Wasn't There" was pretty terrible and kind of tainted my reaction to it. I saw it in a mid-town art house mostly populated by an over-40s crowd (as opposed to the city art-house that caters to the College crowd) and they seemed to want to view it as a Comedy and strained to laugh at it where they could (not derisively, but just trying to enjoy it). I just couldn't get into it at all, but I always tell myself one day I should give it another chance (without an audience to bug me).

inri222

The first time I saw TMWWT I disliked it. After re-watching it I liked it more but it's still not that great.

Mabuse

It's strange that you would say this, because I was about to tell Thrush that it's important to realize that the movie is a comedy. It's really deadpan, but its hysterically funny.

Thrush

I always try to go into a Coen bros movie with an open mind. I don't think having this information would make this movie any more enjoyable to me.

Ginwen

Intolerable Cruelty. Ladykillers is close, but there is one stupid line from it that still makes me chuckle, so it is only second worst.

Franchot

Intolerable Cruelty. (Someday I'll try to rewatch it.)

For all the hate that The Ladykillers is receiving in this thread...I'll merely say that I think it's quite enjoyable.

My fav of theirs is No Country For Old Men.

JimRochester

I guess I don't get out much because I've only seen a few. Out of the ones I've seen:

Hail Caesar!
True Grit
Burn After Reading
The Ladykillers
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Big Lebowski
Fargo
Raising Arizona


I'll go with Raising Arizona however I will asterisk that by saying I think I can only recall seeing it once on VHS

mike7162

For me it's Intolerable Cruelty, although I revisted the film recently and softened on it a bit. I kinda get what they were going for now, and it plays better to me. However, I'll reserve my vote since I've yet to see Hail Ceaser!. It's the only Coen's film besides The Hudsucker Proxy I've haven't seen on its opening day.