Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Intolerable Cruelty (2003)

Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen

Writers: Joel & Ethan Coen, Robert Ramsey, Matthew Stone, John Romano

Composer: Carter Burwell

Starring: George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, Edward Herrmann, Paul Adelstein, Richard Jenkins, Billy Bob Thornton, Julia Duffy, Jonathan Hadary, Tom Aldredge, Bruce Campbell, Irwin Keyes

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A romantic comedy with bite.

Plot: A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverly Hills lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce.



My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I saw this in the theater in 2003 and I didn't like it.  See, I went into it expecting a Coen Bros. picture and it felt like anything but.  I was hurt.  The Coen Bros. let me down.  I've spent the past decade plus in mourning.  Now that I'm over it, I checked it out again and I really dig it. This time, though, I was really drawn to the performances and the writing.  Billy Bob Thornton had me in stitches.  The whole thing with Wheezy Joe (Keyes) is pretty weak as far as attempting screwball comedy goes, especially the end of the scene but the rest of the picture is pretty funny and Clooney makes a real strong go at it and delivers some truly funny moments.  The Universal DVD has a nice anamorphic widescreen print with a few extras in a making of doc (12 minutes), a 5 minute piece on the wardrobe (really?) and 7 minutes of "Filmmaker Approved and Assembled Outtakes".  That's it.

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