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Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
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66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
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13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
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67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Blood Simple: The Director's Cut

Universal acclaim
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 10 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Directed by: Joel Coen
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 7, 2000
DVD: September 18, 2001
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
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).
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Barton Fink Burn After Reading Fargo Intolerable Cruelty Miller's Crossing No Country for Old Men O Brother, Where Art Thou? Raising Arizona The Big Lebowski The Hudsucker Proxy The Ladykillers The Man Who Wasn't There
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
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...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
If you are squeamish, here is the film to make you squeam.
Read Full Review >New York Post Hannah Brown
It's like watching Alfred Hitchcock try to solve a Rubik's cube in a roadside diner.
Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
All in all, Blood Simple looks better than ever.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Filled with wonderful performances, especially by Hedaya and Walsh, Blood Simple remains a tight, beautifully ugly, neo-noir classic.
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.
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 >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
As good as it ever was, and improved slightly by hindsight, experience, and extra cash.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
It's the boys' most immediately gratifying movie: The goods are delivered in a hearse.
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 >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.
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.
TV Guide Editor
The Coens' concern isn't emotional intensity but bravura camera moves and chic lighting of cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Clever as it is, Blood Simple is derivative and self-consciously stylized.
Read Full Review >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.
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 >Film.com Ernest Hardy
All these years later, the film is far more infuriating than it is exciting.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
It is an exploitation picture disguised as a hipster comedy.
Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Remains mired in a smart-alecky film-school sensibility.
Read Full Review >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 >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Bill C gave it a7:
A movie that doesn't follow a set pattern and you never know what is next. Bravo!
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!
