Others say...

"Quirky 'Blood Simple-'Type Coen Brothers Crime Show"
This movie reminded me of the Coen Brothers' first film, "Blood Simple" (1984). with its understated but quirky and violent characters, odd dialog and sudden brutality. It's an odd crime film, but that what's the Coen Brothers usually deliver us: odd and entertaining movies. Whether it's the "Best Picture Of The Year," I question, but I did find it fascinating. I liked it even more the second time.

Many times the villain is the most interesting character in a movie, and I'd have to say that's the case here, too. Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor, plays "Anton Chigurh" and this guy is one strange dude, with an even-stranger weapon. Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones are almost as intriguing. Brolin is "Llewelyn Moss," a guy out hunting one day and finds dirty money at a bloody crime scene, takes it, and is on the run from the crooks who own it. Jones is the local sheriff, "Ed Tom Bell," who actually tries to help Moss by grabbing him before the killers do. Ed Tom admits times sure have changed and deranged killers like "Anton" are totally unexplainable. To me, Jones is always a great actor to watch.

The supporting actors in here are all good, too, and also quirky....just like the Coens like them (see "Fargo" for a good example).

Another star of this film is cinematographer Roger Deakins, one of the best - if not the best - in the business. His work here really looks spectacular when viewed on Blu-Ray. This is one of the best Blu-Ray transfer I've seen.

To me, though, the highlight of this film was the dialog. Man, there were some strange sentences uttered in here with some odd grammar and expressions thrown in. Early on, I put on the English subtitles so I wouldn't miss any of it, or misinterpret what everyone said. In other words, this was not only a fun movie to watch, but to hear. It was very suspenseful most of the way as this turns out to be a long cat-and-mouse chase story. That's usually entertaining to watch, and this is no exception.

Are there flaws in here? Sure, a couple beauties, too.....but I've rambled on enough.

"Dog stole the show."
Best action scene in the film is when the pit bull chases the guy through the river. Those things don't quit.

Best laugh is when Chigurh fails to kill the trailer park manager. She is the one person you would kill too, the one person you want to see killed, the one person you know he will certainly kill (wha- where's your air tank, pal?). But she backs him up and then the confrontation is broken off with a toilet flush.


"My Thoughts"
As far as the movie is concerned, the story is definetly different. I know people who hate this movie and some that love it. I personally found it slow at first and build into a strange, yet entertaining, movie. I bought the blu-ray version and like every blu-ray I have purchased it looks and sounds great. I have watched this a few times now and really appreciate this story.

"The Coens best film yet"
The Coen brothers never cease to amaze with their witty stories, excellent casting, and stunning screenplay. One movie in particular, is No Country For Old Men. This movie is very dark and serious, which is unusual for the Coens. Javier Bardem's portrayal of the killer for hire was horrifying. Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones also gave great performances. The Coens also did a great job at planning this storyline and picking the location. The action sequences had me on the edge of my seat, and every scene with Bardem was a "bone chilling" experience. There are some underlying themes the movie addresses, such as the changing times, the border war with Texas and Mexico, the concept of chance and predestination, among various other themes. No Country for Old Men won the academy award for best film and I believe it was the greatest of the Coen brothers genre.
No Country for Old Men is new territory for the Coen brothers. Their stories usually contain humor with a great storyline. No Country for Old Men is just a dark story with explicit violence and an amazing story. No Country for Old Men was originally a novel by Cormac McCarthy, and it is the first time the Coens have adapted a novel to film. The Coens made a dark comedy before called Fargo, but it still has some humorous moments in it. No Country for Old Men is straight up violence and intense action from scene one to the end.
The Coens always seem to employ the cast that just fits the movie. Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Javier Bardem all played excellent roles in the movie. The story does not have too much depth to it overall. There is no background on the characters in the movie. The movie just starts with the story and hopes the audience can keep up. Brolin's character, Llewelyn Moss, is a hunter who stumbles upon drug money from a deal gone bad. Bardem's character, Chigurh, is a killer for hire sent to find who took the money and get it back. Tommy Lee Jones plays an aging sheriff who laments the changing world, and is trying to find Brolin before he gets killed by Bardem. Bardem is like a machine that kills all in his path, some critics even feel he represents the Grim Reaper, "It is his utter disregard for human life that have prompted some to equate his character to the idea of the Grim Reaper, a comparison that is only mildly appropriate considering many of his actions in the film." (Lovell, www.oscarguy.com).
Bardem's character, Chigurh, is a cold-hearted monster that believes in fate and chance. He allows some victims to save their own lives based on a coin toss. The only man that ever survives is an unsuspecting store clerk. Almost every scene involves Chigurh killing with his silenced shotgun, and even sometimes, his pressurized rod used to kill cattle. He is a psychopath, but he is deeper than your ordinary serial killer. Chigurh does have some kind of presence in the movie that sends chills down your spine every time he walks in. The scene where Brolin is expecting a killer to walk in is incredibly tense. The second the door lock is blown out of the door you know it is Chigurh, and you are in for a great duel. Brolin and Bardem's duel is one of the best moments of the whole movie. Every time Brolin is about to escape, Bardem seems to catch up and almost kill him. Chigurh's presence has brought chaos to this small Texas town, and in many ways, it's a slaughter. The one part of the movie that I am sure everyone is upset with is the ending. This may be a spoiler alert, so do not read this if you have not seen the movie. The ending has Bardem get in a car crash, and walk away with a bone sticking out of his arm. Then, it shifts back to Tommy Lee who explains a dream he had, and then the movie ends. Many people may be expecting a sequel with an end like that, but that is the way the Coens may have wanted to leave the movie.
The themes the Coens employ in the movie are intriguing. One in particular is Tommy Lee Jones' character, the old sheriff. He has been on the force for awhile just like his father before him. He has seen a lot being in Texas and on the border of Mexico. He has never seen anything compared to the death and destruction Chigurh has brought with him. Tommy Lee hopes to find Brolin, and save him before Chigurh gets to him. The movie is quite possibly named after Tommy Lee's character who has gotten old and laments the way the times are changing, and how he cannot stop it. The best explanation of this theme comes when Tommy Lee and a retired sheriff named Ellis are talking. Ellis says, "Whatcha got ain't nothin new. This country's hard on people, you can't stop what's coming, it ain't all waiting on you. That's vanity." It gives that sense of an older generation is moving out and making way for the new. No matter what happens, time never stops, people will get old, and younger people will take the reigns, so to speak.
The Coens also manage to utilize the location of the movie in rural Texas and the time is 1980. The townsfolk are all simple people with thick accents who cannot understand a personality such as Chigurh's. This may be one reason he kills so many citizens with ease. One interesting symbol of the movie is how it takes place at night mostly. The Texas night skies add to Bardem's darkness and personality. He is darkness personified and is like the Grim Reaper. Another symbol of the time is Bardem's hair. It was the hairstyle of the late seventies, and it will forever be remembered because of No Country for Old Men. The Coens also did a good job casting Tommy Lee, since he is a native Texan, and he even grew up close to the area where they filmed. They wanted the sheriff to be from the region since he is the soul of the movie.
In short, No Country for Old Men is a great movie directed and written by the Coens. The acting is spectacular and the action is even better. The movie may not have as much depth or background as one would like, but it is still a great movie, nonetheless. It is not a movie that makes you think, but it does bring excitement to whoever is watching it. Bardem's character "makes the film," so to speak. He is the driving force of No Country for Old Men. Brolin and Tommy Lee would be lost without him, but it is because of Bardem that I would give this movie five stars out of five. I can see why this movie got so many awards, and I would like to see Bardem in more films in the future.


"An Oscar worthy Western metaphor"
I heard a lot of bad stuff about this flick from my friends before I saw it -- that is wasn't Oscar-worthy, that is was same old-same old Coen brothers, that it broke no new ground, that is was slow and crawled at a worm's pace. Much of this is true but, having recently seen Oscar-nominated film "Michael Clayton" and the even slower and more boring "Atonement", I would suggest the Motion Picture Academy made a wise choice handing the statuette to this movie.

"No Country for Old Men" is a Western reinvented in 1980 and crosses paradigms between post-Vietnam angst (both main characters, the hunter and hunted, are veterans of the conflict) and the coming Reaganomics of the era, where personal self-indulgence and winning at all costs was the mantra of making money in the 1980s.

If you haven't seen the film, a hunter goes out to dusty rural Texas one day and stumbles upon a drug deal where everyone is shot up. He finds $2 million and a game begins between him and two other gents wanting the money. It's not clear from the film what role each protagonist played in the drug deal -- one is a bounty hunter after the dough while the other seems to have had some role in the shoot em up -- but both want the money. One is the lead character, a bad dude that dislikes everyone and sheds a lot of blood throuhgout the film.

As is their wont, the Coens throw in another character and star -- Tommy Lee Jones as the local aging sheriff -- to mix up the bubbling cauldron. Put this all together and you have an old fahsioned cowboy chase film shot in modern day Texas using picup trucks and SUVs as substitutes for horses and covered wagons.

One of my favorites parts of this movie is the silencer the bad guy uses on his shotgun that looks like a tin can. Boy, is that thing funny! He uses it to good affect throughout, offing about 15 people in his bloodthirstry search for the money. One of my least favorite parts is the Coens' inability to tie a knot at the end of the film, which ends the same way "The Sopranos" TV series ended -- inconclusively. You have no idea what happened to anyone still alive or the $2 million.

That shortcoming aside, this is an interesting, involving and intellingent film made from a book that is the Coens first real suspenser since "Blood Simple" in 1984. It has much of that film's aura, pace and design and, as such, represents a return to roots for the Coen brothers. Let's hope they can continue making high quality films and continue leaving George Clooney out of their movies. That makes things better for everyone, in my opinion.