Intolerable Cruelty (Widescreen Edition)

Product Description

It's comic gold as two of Hollywood's most dazzling stars - George Clooney and Academy Award-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones - light up the screen in Intolerable Cruelty, a hilarious romantic comedy about men, women and everything that can go wrong between them. Sparks fly when brilliant divorce attorney Miles Massey (Clooney) meets his match in the beautiful but ruthless Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones). From Academy Award-winning directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (Fargo; O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Intolerable Cruelty also stars multi-talented Billy Bob Thornton and outrageous Cedric the Entertainer.

System Requirements:

Running Time 100 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE

Amazon.com

A sleek George Clooney and a seductive Catherine Zeta-Jones square off magnificently in the divorce comedy Intolerable Cruelty. The plot is simple: Lawyer supreme Miles Massey (Clooney, Out of Sight, Ocean's Eleven) skillfully outmaneuvers gold-digger Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones, Chicago, Traffic) when she divorces her wealthy husband--and she sets out to get revenge. But this movie comes from the creative minds of the Coen Brothers (Fargo, Raising Arizona, O Brother Where Art Thou?), and so Intolerable Cruelty includes a Scottish wedding chapel in Vegas, an asthmatic hit man, fluffy-dog-stroking European nobility, and a legendarily unbreakable pre-nuptial agreement. Still, it's pretty restrained for the Coens; smooth and consistent, it never stumbles as disappointingly as their movies can, but also never quite hits the operatic pitch of their best work. It's still damn funny, though, with top-notch performances from the leads as well as Geoffrey Rush, Cedric the Entertainer, and Billy Bob Thornton. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews:

Machiavelli, eat your heart out........2007-09-09

This film has the great Psychological Warfare reminiscent of the WW2 era movies. Very Katherine Hepburn in the undertones. But you gotta pay attention or you miss it. Not as good as Hepburn (of course; duh!)but I don't think that was the point in making this film anyway.
I also like the irony of Zeta-Jones' character in today's world where women are supposed to be independant and strong (but come on, let's face it, we're still not getting paid the same salaries for the same jobs!). So Zeta-Jones decides to get her money the old fashioned way. Marrying a rich man and then divorcing him. ; )
Again, going back to the WW2 Era movies, Zeta-Jones plays a sharp-witted rival to the Man's-Man (Clooney) and yet still retains her femininity.(Could this mean we women don't have to wear pant-suits afterall?)

Suspend Your Disbelief. .......2007-05-30

In order to enjoy this movie it is necessary for one, almost immediately, to suspend their disbelief as California was the state that pioneered no fault divorce. Unfortunately, it seems like the only people who haven't heard about it are the Coen brothers. Therefore, the bad news is that most of the plot is entirely implausible as it doesn't matter who cheated on whom or what they did during the relationship. That being said I still found Intolerable Cruelty to be tremendously enjoyable and fun to watch. Yes, it is a step down for the Coen brothers who have produced the greatest movies of the past two decades this side of Martin Scorsese. Certainly it is no Miller's Crossing but what else could be? Particularly provocative is its take on gold digging women which is very politically correct as it shows Zeta-Jones and her clique to be parasites and systematic exploiters of men. This take on male-female relations (at that particular socio-economic level) is rife with truth and far truer than the politically correct precept that women are victims. Actually, we find that these ladies to be quite empowered even if it is in the fashion of Bluebeard. The movie is a convincing reproduction of real life at the psychological, as opposed to legal, level which is another reason why I must recommend it. As for Clooney, he's absolutely excellent here. I don't think his performance could have been improved on by any other actor. Bravo!

:).......2007-04-10

Great stuff! This looked like the typical insipid romantic comedy to me, but I grabbed one night when the shelves were otherwise bare at Blockbuster, and was pleasantly surprised. I immediately grabbed the box to look for more info, and much to my surprise saw it was a Coen brothers' movie. That explained it. It's a very witty comedy.

Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney are wonderful!.......2007-03-27

I thought this movie was so funny!

I've viewed it twice now, and the second time was better than the first. I hadn't realized it was a Coen Brothers' Film at first, but as soon as I did, so much of the humor began to settle in.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is so sexy, and her script is well-executed. George Clooney is his usual goofy self, but with the right amount of class to match his rival/lover/object of his obsession - Marilyn Rexroth.

If you like Coen Brothers films, you will appreciate this movie and laugh as much as I did throughout. It makes fun of the slices of life that most people take so seriously!

turn the sound off.......2007-02-19

This movie is so dumb that it's as good with the sound off as with the sound on. The only reason to watch it is to observe the extreme beauty of both leads. A plot as old as the written word could still form the basis of an OK movie with a good script, but this script has no charm, no wit, no nothing.

Intolerable Cruelty (Full Screen Edition)

Average customer rating:

Machiavelli, eat your heart out.
Suspend Your Disbelief.
:)
Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney are wonderful!
turn the sound off

Intolerable Cruelty (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: George Clooney , Catherine Zeta-Jones , Geoffrey Rush , Cedric the Entertainer , and Edward Herrmann
Director: Joel Coen , and Ethan Coen
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00014SGKQ
Release Date: 2004-02-10

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Machiavelli, eat your heart out........2007-09-09

Suspend Your Disbelief. .......2007-05-30

:).......2007-04-10

Catherine Zeta-Jones and George Clooney are wonderful!.......2007-03-27

turn the sound off.......2007-02-19

The Coen Brothers Collection (The Big Lebowski/Blood Simple/The Man Who Wasn't There/Intolerable Cruelty)

Average customer rating:

Great diverse collection from the Coens
BLOOD SIMPLE IS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS EVER MADE
Horrible Compilation
THE COEN BROTHERS COLLECTION

The Coen Brothers Collection (The Big Lebowski/Blood Simple/The Man Who Wasn't There/Intolerable Cruelty)
Starring: John Getz , Frances McDormand , Dan Hedaya , M. Emmet Walsh , and Samm-Art Williams
Director: Joel Coen , and Ethan Coen
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000ASATSU
Release Date: 2005-10-18

Description

The Big Lebowski: The Coen brothers' irreverent cult hit comes to DVD as a Collector's Edition, with all-new bonus material. The hilariously twisted comedy-thriller stars Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore. Join the "Dude" and his bowling buddies on their journey that blends unforgettable characters, kidnapping, a case of mistaken identity and White Russians. Enter the visually unique and entertaining world from the creative minds of the Coen brothers and remember: the Dude abides.

Blood Simple: This critically-acclaimed thriller set in rural Texas combines chilling suspense with offbeat humor to create an all-American version of the classic "film noir." Abby (Frances McDormand) is cheating on her saloonkeeper husband, Marty (Dan Hedaya). The object of her affections is Ray (John Getz), one of Marty's bartenders. Marty hires Visser (M. Emmet Walsh), an unscrupulous detective, to kill them but Visser has other, more lucrative plans of his own. So begins a calculating round of double and triple crosses that build to a bloodcurdling, surprise-filled climax. It's an evil-minded masterpiece from the exciting filmmaking team of Joel and Ethan Coen. In Blood Simple, when someone's gone...it's never for good!

Intolerable Cruelty: It's comic gold as two of Hollywood's most dazzling stars - George Clooney and Academy Award-winner Catherine Zeta-Jones - light up the screen in Intolerable Cruelty, a hilarious romantic comedy about men, women, and everything that can go wrong between them. Sparks fly when brilliant divorce attorney Miles Massey (Clooney) meets his match in the beautiful but ruthless Marylin Rexroth (Zeta-Jones). From Academy Award-winning directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (Fargo; O Brother, Where Art Thou?), Intolerable Cruelty also stars multi-talented Billy Bob Thornton and outrageous Cedric The Entertainer.

The Man Who Wasn't There: The Coen Brothers are back with a dark and twisted film noir unlike anything you've ever seen. Set in a small 1949 California town, this is the story of a seemingly simple barber, who turns to blackmail and revenge to escape his achingly dull life. But in the tradition of classic noir, nothing goes as planned and nothing is as it seems. And as the barber's plot unravels, the delicious surprises, stunning revelations and just plain strange occurrences will disturb and delight you long after the film has ended.

Customer Reviews:

Great diverse collection from the Coens.......2007-01-04

This 4 movie collection from 2 of the most original minds in cinema is a real treat.
Big Lebowski is possibly the best example of the Coen brothers style as it contains elements of drama, mystery and comedy in an intertwining tapestry.
Blood Simple remains one of the best thrillers made since Hitchcock's prime.
Intolerable Cruelty is fun romantic comedy.
And finally the Man Who Wasn't There is fascinating film noir combined with a Lynchian sensibility.
The negative reviews below are silly. First, these films represent only the Universal films the Coen's have made, thus, it's logical and predictable that this box set contains nothing from the other studios.
Also, one reviewer giving the collection 1 star is a big Spielberg fan, yet, seems to dislike his more adult work. (Furthermore, if you don't even like the Coens' Blood Simple you should definitely stick to E.T.)
A reviewer from Australia gives this collection a single star because she received the wrong country format. (That's a real shame, but a movie review site is a poor place to discuss a customer service issue.)

Hopefully there will be other collections released containing the other Coen brother films from the other studios.

BLOOD SIMPLE IS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS EVER MADE.......2007-01-01

AWESOME SET.
BLOOD SIMPLE AND THE BIG LEBOWSKI ARE AWESOME. THE OTHER TWO ARE NOT QUITE AS GOOD, BUT ARE GREAT FILMS AS WELL.
BLOOD SIMPLE IS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS EVER MADE.
THE COEN BROTHERS ARE PERHAPS THE BEST FILM MAKERS AROUND IN THIS DAY AND AGE (TOO BAD THERE AREN'T ANY KUBRICKS LEFT OUT THERE).

Horrible Compilation.......2006-08-21

Atrocious Compilation - it's of some of the worst films the Coens' did (excluding The Big Lebowksi) and does not include their most famous films. What were they thinking? It's like if they released a Spielberg Compilation but only included Catch Me If You Can, AI, Minority Report, and War of the Worlds. WTF!!!!

Plus you can buy each DVD separately and come UNDER the asking price of the entire set. The BIg Lebowski and The Man Who Wasn't There are about 10 bucks new in most stores. Blood Simple and Int. Cruelty (which is the most UNCoen film ever) are closer to 5 in many places I've seen. So don't fall into the "compilation trap" because you are not getting a "bulk" discount. Just buy the films you want separately. Most Coen DVDs are very reasonable price wise.

Any Coen compilation without Fargo, Barton Fink, and Raising Arizona is worthless.
And again, you're better off spending $40 on those DVDs individually.

THE COEN BROTHERS COLLECTION.......2006-08-17

The DVDs we received were not formatted to Zone 4 (Australia) se we've had to return the goods, unfortunately. Therefore, no helpful comments.

Charlie Rose with Irving Weissman; George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (October 6, 2003)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with Irving Weissman; George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (October 6, 2003)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Educational | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000HBL2EK
Release Date: 2006-08-15

Description

Professor and director of the Institute for Cell Biology and Medicine at Stanford University, Irving Weissman, on the progress of stem cell research, reproductive cloning and the government's regulation of those technologies. Then, a conversation about the film Intolerable Cruelty with directors, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, and actors George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Average customer rating:

INTOLERABLE IS THE OPERATIVE WORD...

Intolerable Cruelty [Region 2]
Starring: George Clooney , Catherine Zeta-Jones , Geoffrey Rush , Cedric the Entertainer , and Edward Herrmann
Director: Ethan Coen , and Joel Coen
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00019HOUY

Customer Reviews:

INTOLERABLE IS THE OPERATIVE WORD..........2006-06-07

I confess to being a big fan of the Coen brothers, which is why I was surprised at my response to this film. With a cast to die for, it has all the makings of a terrific film. Unfortunately, that is about as far as it gets, as the cast cannot undo what has been done by a screenplay that is seriously flawed, due to its inability to decide what type of film it should be. Unfortunately, it looks as if the director could not make up his mind either, producing a film that is neither fish nor fowl.

At first, I thought that it would be a screwball type of comedy, with George Clooney in the role that would have gone to Cary Grant in the golden age of filmmaking. Then, it seems to take another direction altogether, as if it were supposed to be a romantic comedy with a dark side or simply satire gone awry. Who knows? The Coen brothers surely don't. The film lacks a total surety of identity that kills it, despite the stellar cast. It is a flop, pure and simple.

The plot line is a fairly basic one. It is about a slick, greedy and grasping, unscrupulous matrimonial attorney (George Clooney), the kind that gives all lawyers a bad name, and a greedy and grasping gold digging beauty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who gives all beautiful women a bad name. Their paths cross, and the chase is on. Unfortunately, the viewer does not give a rat's behind about either one of them. There is nothing that would ingratiate them to the viewer, due to the two dimensional, leaden screenplay to nowhere in which laughs are few and far between.

If you are a die hard Coen brothers fan, as I am, do yourself a favor and, rather than buy this film, rent it first. You will thank me for this advice, once you have seen this film.

Intolerable Cruelty/Lost in Translation Value Pack

Average customer rating:

Intolerable Cruelty/Lost in Translation Value Pack
Starring: Bill Murray
Manufacturer: Universal Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000VG7LLO
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Average customer rating:

THESE TWO FILMS DESERVE EACH OTHER...

Intolerable Cruelty/Lost in Translation
Starring: George Clooney , Catherine Zeta-Jones , Geoffrey Rush , Cedric the Entertainer , and Edward Herrmann
Director: Joel Coen , Ethan Coen , and Sofia Coppola
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00020HB7I
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Customer Reviews:

THESE TWO FILMS DESERVE EACH OTHER..........2004-09-12

I confess to being a big fan of the Coen brothers, which is why I was surprised at my response to "Intolerable Cruelty". With a cast to die for, it has all the makings of a terrific film. Unfortunately, that is about as far as it gets, as the cast cannot undo what has been done by a screenplay that is seriously flawed, due to its inability to decide what type of film it should be. Unfortunately, it looks as if the director could not make up his mind either, producing a film that is neither fish nor fowl.

At first, I thought that it would be a screwball type of comedy, with George Clooney in the role that would have gone to Cary Grant in the golden age of filmmaking. Then, it seems to take another direction altogether, as if it were supposed to be a romantic comedy with a dark side or simply satire gone awry. Who knows? The Coen brothers surely don't. The film lacks a total surety of identity that kills it, despite the stellar cast. It is a flop, pure and simple.

The plot line is a fairly basic one. It is about a slick, greedy and grasping, unscrupulous matrimonial attorney (George Clooney), the kind that gives all lawyers a bad name, and a greedy and grasping gold digging beauty (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who gives all beautiful women a bad name. Their paths cross, and the chase is on. Unfortunately, the viewer does not give a rat's behind about either one of them. There is nothing that would ingratiate them to the viewer, due to the two dimensional, leaden screenplay to nowhere in which laughs are few and far between.

If you are a die hard Coen brothers fan, as I am, do yourself a favor and, rather than buy this film, rent it first. You will thank me for this advice, once you have seen this film.

"Lost in Translation" is a film that both my daughter and I were interested in seeing, given the acclaim that Bill Murray's performance had drawn. Moreover, the film itself had drawn critical acclaim. So, when my daughter was home from college one weekend, we decided to hunker down and watch it together. When we both fell asleep while watching it, we decided that we were just tired. So, we decided to give it another go around the next evening. Well, it was not much better the second time around, though we managed to avoid falling asleep, yet again.

Quite frankly, if Sophia Coppola, the writer and director of this film, were not the daughter of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola, I am convinced that this film would have quickly vanished without a trace. In fact, I doubt that it would even have been made. When her acting career fizzled, after making her less than memorable acting debut in her father's film "Godfather III", Sophia Coppola apparently turned her hand to directing and was let loose upon an unsuspecting public.

While this film has good production values, it simply meanders along in a loosey-goosey sort of way. If focuses upon two individuals, Americans who find themselves in Tokyo, alienated from their surroundings and, seemingly, from life in general. One of these individuals is Bob Harris, a film actor on a career downslide, who now finds himself shilling whiskey in Japan for mega bucks, while his movie career is at an impasse. The other is a beautiful twenty-five year old woman, a Yale Graduate with a degree in philosophy, who is in Japan with her husband, a photographer who is working on a shooting assignment.

Bob Harris, played with wry bemusement by Bill Murray, is a man who is alienated from his family and, quite frankly, just plain lonely. His is a stark universe, as he seems to have a myopic view on life, seeing little beyond his luxury hotel's bar, where he like to go and drink. Charlotte, played with surprising maturity and flair by eighteen year old Scarlett Johansson, feels bereft and set adrift, as she struggles to keep herself occupied while her husband is ostensibly working. It is these two souls whose worlds collide, coloring their perspectives on life when an unlikely bond forms between them.

The film, which takes place in Tokyo, Japan, appears to mock the Japanese. Its stereotypic portrayal of the Japanese people, generally as buffoons, is reprehensible and a cheap joke. Sophia Coppola apparently thinks that the way Japanese people speak English is funny, as it is a running, unfunny joke through out the film. Since the film takes place in Japan, perhaps it might have been funnier to see Bob (or Charlotte) attempt to speak Japanese, rather than turn Bob into the quintessential ugly American.

The film meanders along lacking a definitive narrative and any real profundity of thought. While there is definition about the characters' exterior selves, the film never delves into their inner selves in defining their present state of affairs. There are no big or traditional cinematic moments. Unfortunately, there are no small ones either, as there is really no introspection by either of the two protagonists. This is a film that viewers will either love or hate. I fall into the latter category. "Lost in Translation" is simply lost on me.

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