Blood Simple

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height="139" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"> <A HREF="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005LC4P/reelmoviecriticc">Buy DVD from Amazon.com</A>  </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 20 WIDTH="575"><div> <B>Blood Simple</B> *** (R)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="575"><div> Reviewed By George O. Singleton</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="549" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 24 WIDTH="545"><div> What you see is <I>never</I> what you get</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="580" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ROWS" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Ray: John Getz</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Abby: Frances McDormand</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="269"><div> Marty: Dan Hedaya</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Loren: M. Emmet Walsh</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Meurice: Samm-Art Williams</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="304"><div> Director: Joel Coen </div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>30 Second Bottom Line</B>: "Friends and associates" whose only concern is themselves, commit acts which are misinterpreted to the degree that reactions are unexpected, and usually violent. <I>Blood Simple </I>was first released in 1985, and has been recut and reissued. It is the movie on which the Coen brothers honed their skills for the later, masterful <I>Fargo.</I></div> <bR> <div> <B>Story Line:</B> Ray (John Getz) is a bartender who works at a club owned by Marty (Dan Hedaya). Marty hires Loren (M. Emmet Walsh), a private investigator, to follow his wife Abby (Frances McDormand), who he suspects is sleeping around. When Marty learns that Abby is sleeping with Ray, he hires Loren to kill them both while he is out of town. Loren figures out a way to get his fee, with less risk than killing two people. What ensues is a series of reactions by Ray, Abby, and Loren that is wonderfully complex, but easy to follow. </div> <bR> <div> Meurice (Samm-Art Williams) is another bartender, who like Ray, is a ladies man. There are a. number of unforgettably clever scenes that make <I>Blood Simple </I>ahead of its time, although not a classic. The "man who would not die" is used in a very clever way in <I>Blood Simple, </I>which puts to shame its mindless use in most of the movies today. </div> <bR> <div> Loren, while trying to cover a crime that he commits, finds himself literally in two places at the same time. Yes, you read it right and there is no trick photography or CGI! </div> <bR> <div> <B>Tell Me More About It</B>: <I>Blood Simple </I>reminds me of <I>Bound </I>and <I>Not One Less, </I>more so than <I>Fargo. </I>Good people allow their emotions to take them to a lower level of morality than they thought possible. </div> <bR> <div> At times, relatively intelligent people, trying to work small cons, make decisions, which have consequences that are much further reaching than they could have imagined. <I>Blood Simple </I>makes you wonder just how far you might go in committing increasingly egregious acts if you thought the first would without a doubt be the last. What one might think is a slippery slope, could be a free fall.</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="591" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> R (sex; violence; language)</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> George O. Singleton © 2000</div> </tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="587"><div> <A HREF="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:Reelmoviec@aol.com"><U><U>George@reelmoviecritic.com</U></U></A></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> Mini Filmography </div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ROWS" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="287"><div> John Getz: "Maggie-TV"</div> </tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> Frances McDormand: "Fargo"</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Dan Hedaya: "The Hurricane"</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> M. Emmet Walsh: "Wild Wild West"</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 ><NOBR><div> Samm-Art Williams: "A Rage In Harlem"</div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="285"><div> Joel Coen: "Fargo"</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="517" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 19 WIDTH="511"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="19" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="511" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>