CNET Networks Entertainment GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer | Metacritic | MP3.com | TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games Books TV
Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Film

Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Wide Releases

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

 

Limited Releases

sort by name sort by score

97 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
83 Alexandra
43 Anamorph
35 Babysitters, The
32 Backseat
80 Band's Visit, The
62 Battle for Haditha
47 Bella
63 Blind Mountain
71 Blindsight
47 Boarding Gate
63 Body of War
58 Bra Boys
70 Caramel
54 Cashback
44 Chaos Theory
32 Chapter 27
69 Chicago 10
82 Chop Shop
46 CJ7
78 Counterfeiters, The
30 Cover
48 Dark Matter
35 Deal
61 Dhamma Brothers, The
92 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
73 Duchess of Langeais, The
20 Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
58 Fall, The
43 Favor, The
58 First Saturday in May, The
57 Flawless
87 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
xx From Within
44 Frontier(s)
59 Fugitive Pieces
41 Funny Games
66 George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead
61 Girls Rock!
55 Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
57 Grand, The
58 Hats Off
68 Honeydripper
xx Jack and Jill vs. the World
67 Jellyfish
xx Kiss the Bride
37 Life Before Her Eyes, The
72 Life of Reilly, The
50 Look
65 Married Life
35 Meet Bill
63 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
54 Mister Lonely
52 My Blueberry Nights
71 My Brother Is an Only Child
52 Noise
61 OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
83 Paranoid Park
55 Pathology
48 Penelope
90 Persepolis
62 Planet B-Boy
xx Plumm Summer, A
67 Praying with Lior
46 Previous Engagement, A
72 Priceless
17 Prom Night
69 Redbelt
72 Roman de gare
48 Run, Fat Boy, Run
85 Savages, The
24 Sex and Death 101
66 Shelter
75 Shotgun Stories
40 Sleepwalking
67 Snow Angels
64 Son of Rambow
71 Standard Operating Procedure
76 Stuff and Dough
64 Surfwise
xx Tashan
82 Taxi to the Dark Side
57 Teeth
56 Then She Found Me
55 Tracey Fragments, The
56 Turn the River
72 Tuya's Marriage
83 U2 3D
59 Under the Same Moon
76 Unforeseen, The
xx Unsettled
91 Up the Yangtze
55 Vice
79 Visitor, The
64 Water Lilies
45 Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden?
57 Without the King
74 Witnesses, The
63 XXY
67 Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75 Young@Heart
45 Zombie Strippers

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.



Blood Simple: The Director's Cut
USA Films

Blood Simple:  The Director's Cut reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 81 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.3 out of 10
based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 9 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for violence and language

Starring John Getz, Frances McDormand, Dan Hedaya, and M. Emmet Walsh

The restored and re-edited director's cut of the Coen Brothers' 1984 crime thriller stars Hedaya as a jealous bar owner who hires a nefarious detective (Walsh) to kill his young wife (McDormand).


GENRE(S): Suspense/Thriller  
WRITTEN BY: Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
 
DIRECTED BY: Joel Coen  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: September 18, 2001 
Video: September 18, 2001 
Theatrical: July 7, 2000 
RUNNING TIME: 97 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
If you are squeamish, here is the film to make you squeam.
Read Full Review
100
New York Post Hannah Brown
It's like watching Alfred Hitchcock try to solve a Rubik's cube in a roadside diner.
100
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
All in all, Blood Simple looks better than ever.
Read Full Review
100
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Filled with wonderful performances, especially by Hedaya and Walsh, Blood Simple remains a tight, beautifully ugly, neo-noir classic.
100
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Savor their technique and the sizzling performances of Frances McDormand as an adulterous wife, Dan Hedaya as her vengeful husband and M. Emmet Walsh as a private detective from hell.
90
Washington Post Desson Thomson
I love the movie's originality, its sense of macabre humor, its resourcefulness, and the great Walsh, whose memorable narration kicks off the movie.
Read Full Review
90
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
I love the unsettling details.
Read Full Review
89
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
As good as it ever was, and improved slightly by hindsight, experience, and extra cash.
Read Full Review
88
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
It's the boys' most immediately gratifying movie: The goods are delivered in a hearse.
88
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
(The Coens have) never again achieved the one-two punch of Blood Simple and "Raising Arizona" - the first darkly cynical, the second light-headedly comical.
Read Full Review
88
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
This is not an inspirational drama about finding yourself; it's a Hitchcockian comedy about adultery, murder and losing a corpse.
80
Los Angeles Times Chris Barton
Don't miss this opportunity to see a film that many believe started the renaissance of indie films as it was intended to be shown.
80
Village Voice J. Hoberman
Boldly facetious and monstrously clever.
Read Full Review
80
TV Guide Editor
The Coens' concern isn't emotional intensity but bravura camera moves and chic lighting of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Clever as it is, Blood Simple is derivative and self-consciously stylized.
Read Full Review
75
Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
Grisly, stylish and often weirdly funny, Blood Simple is a reminder of how rarely an original artistic sensibility is announced to the world and how much better movies are when that sensibility is allowed to keep going its own way.
75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
If you can handle its horror-comic grotesquerie, you'll find an enormous amount of cinematic imagination at work.
Read Full Review
70
Film.com Ernest Hardy
All these years later, the film is far more infuriating than it is exciting.
Read Full Review
63
Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
It is an exploitation picture disguised as a hipster comedy.
60
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Remains mired in a smart-alecky film-school sensibility.
Read Full Review
50
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
On viewing, the cuts seem negligible, but what is new and clearly improved is the sound, which now booms with each door slam and gunshot.
Read Full Review
50
Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Revelatory and disappointing.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 9 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

J. Ryan G. gave it a9:
Like "Fargo" and "Raising Arizona," and unlike just about every other deliriously overrated Coen movie, this one is stripped down to its twisted soul. It exposes people who are at their worst regardless of the place or time of day - and aren't there so many of them walking the earth! One can see from this early film that the Coens had Orson Wellesian potential, though it was only seen again (and fully realized) in "Fargo."

Cameron S. gave it a 10:
Beautiful in the most unconventional way, "Blood Simple" is one of two odes the Coen's do - film noir. Every silhouette is atmospheric, and the all events unfold with all due interest like an engaging pulp novel, with the characters in situations that they know how they got into but have no idea how to get out.

Pat C. gave it an 8:
Vintage Coen. Their style is too quirky and volatile to manufacture a reliable product. They go too far into themselves in their creative process to step back and evaluate their ongoing work. Good thing I'm here. Fargo & Raising Arizona were superior efforts. You can see their better influences in this early work. Definitely not for all tastes, but I say Go with it.

Yoon C. gave it a 7:
An indie movie that showed alot of promise and cleverness, and for better or worse, anticipated both the talent and shortcomings of the Coen Brothers in their successive films. It's at its best with the oddball private detective around and mostly rudimentary regurgitation of noir coventions with the other three principals.

Rick J. G. gave it a 10:
There must have been at least a decade time gap between my viewing of the original and the director's cut, so I have no idea what is different about the two versions. My impression of this great movie was not changed in the least by this version of it. One of the great American movies.

Beau F. gave it a 10:
I never saw the original version, but the Director's Cut is incredibly good. M. Emmet Walsh as you've never seen him!

Ryan M. gave it a 10:
A pre-ordering to "Fargo" and "The Usual Suspects" that makes you sqiurm in your seats while you're completely riveted in every way--one of the ten greatest thrillers of all-time!

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | BOOKS | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

About CNET Networks | Jobs | Advertise | Partnerships                                Visit other CNET Networks sites:

Copyright ©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use