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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The Coen brothers (Raising Arizona, Fargo) have become the most consistently original filmmakers in the land. In a salute/reworking of the fast-talking comedies of the '40s, we follow Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) and his amazing rise to the top. But he's only a puppet for the evil Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman), who wants the company for himself. The Coens' design is the real star, and their first big-budget film will stimulate movie fans. The story weakens in the middle, but you will find very few films that move with this much imagination. As a Kate Hepburn hybrid, Jennifer Jason Leigh is wonderful in an almost unplayable role. The less you know about the film, the better it plays, so just think of it as How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying mixed with Brazil and every journalistic drama made before 1960. Cowritten by Sam Raimi. --Doug Thomas
Product Description
A clerk (Robbins) is promoted to company president as part of a stock manipulation scheme, but the clerk has an idea that will ruin everything if he gets the chance.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Two things killed this movie at the box office when it was first released: first, its title. Americans didn't seem to know what a "proxy" was, much less a hudsucking one. The second was its time of release. The movie came out in May as an early summer release but was actually a movie that would have been better received at Christmas. "Jaws" is a prototypical summer film. "It's A Wonderful Life," by comparison, would hardly be a summer blockbuster but sets the perfect tone for the holiday season. Come back in twenty years and you will find that "The Hudsucker Proxy" IS the Frank Capra classic for a new generation. It is Capra meets "Metropolis" blended with the smart humor of the Coens. The casting is near perfect. Tim Robbins is the naive and goofy savant. Paul Newman is as wonderful a villain as you will find as the evil Sidney Mussberger. Only Jennifer Jason Leigh takes a bit of getting used to as the tough talking reporter but she will move you by movie's end. I've had to beg, plead, wheedle and cajole my friends through the years to watch this movie and not let themselves be turned off by its title. Thus far it's left no one disappointed.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The movie's middle third is unbelievably funny, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is perfect. Buscemi shows up briefly during a scene at the Beatnik bar. The DVD isn't of great quality, though. The first hint comes from the fact that "Ethan" (as in "Coen") is spelled "Ethen" in the jewel case's blurb. As soon as you begin watching, you'll notice the graininess in the opening shots, and some jaggies during a pan from Tim Robbins on the ledge. The DVD is ok from then on, until you get to the dancing sequence with the white background. So, the disc is a hack job (maybe that explains the low price, too), but the movie is so well done you can overlook it for all but about 10 seconds.
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
The Hudsucker Proxy is one of my favorite movies of all time. I won't go over what's so great about it because you can get all that just as well by reading the other reviews on this page.
I do want to address the quality of the DVD, however. While the DVD does offer both standard and widescreen mode (anamorphic, no less), it decidedly comes across as a sub-par job. The transfer is terrible, dark and grainy in places and completely washed-out in others (the dancing scene made me wonder if something was wrong with my player). The sound is in Dolby stereo rather than the 5.1 channel surround just about everything post-1990 is available in. Not to mention the complete lack of extras: no actor bios, commentary (which I would have really liked to have seen) -- not even a theatrical trailer. For a movie of this quality, I would have expected a lot more.
I love this movie, so I got it anyway and am happy with it (after all, it won't deteriorate like VHS). But don't expect a Matrix quality disk or anything.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Bright, Absorbing Historical Adventure That Follows its Own Broken...
This Coen Brothers classic often gets overlooked amidst the rest of the duo's daunting catalog, which is a shame because it would be a shining beacon in almost any other director's... Read more
Published 4 months ago by drqshadow
I LOVE this movie.
It has a ripoff of Brazil near the beginning (at least, I see it that way and wouldn't mark it against the Coens if it were actually a rip off) and everyone acts with such peculiar... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Matthew Pearson
Underrated
Far and above the most underrated movie ever made. The brothers took a chance on a eccentric style and all of the actors bought into it. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Dale M Adrion
Superb Ultra Retro Comedy
Tim Robbins is hilarious as the clueless 1950's Midwesterner who is recruited from a New York corporate mail room of the giant Hucksucker company by bigwigs intent on devaluing... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ulfilas
Tried three times, couldn't finish it.
This is the only Coen Bros movie I have ever really disliked, and that is a major understatement. I don't think I've even gotten half-way through it before it annoyed me to... Read more
Published 11 months ago by April Vawter
Fifty Percent of a Five Star Movie
I'm very fond of this movie. That's because Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, and all the rest of the cast are just about perfect. Read more
Published 11 months ago by maskirovka
Good, but not great; too much style, not enough substance
A decent holiday movie, something of a forgotten one. This film makes an honest effort to pay homage to stuff like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Meet John Doe," but the movie at... Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Russell
As Good As Raising Arizona & The Big Lebowski
The Hudsucker Proxy(1994)was the Coen Brothers' first big budget movie. It was a December film that was released in May. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Zarathustra
Quintessential New Year's Eve film
Just as "It's a Wonderful Life" is THE quintessential film for many people on Christmas Eve, so is "The Hudsucker Proxy" the quintessential film for me for New Year's. Read more
Published on December 21, 2009 by JOHN E DAVIS
sort of the doctrine of the immaculate corporation in comedy form?
In the 1950's American corporations could do now wrong.
Two of the inventions claimed by Norville Barnes are actually WHAM-O®
products made by a novelty toy company in... Read more
Two of the inventions claimed by Norville Barnes are actually WHAM-O®
products made by a novelty toy company in... Read more
Published on December 3, 2009 by R. Bagula
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