Movie Title: No Country For Old Men

Director: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Rated: Hong Kong:IIB / UK:15 / Australia:MA / Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) / Argentina:18 / USA:R (certificate #43473) / Ireland:15A / Canada:14A (British Columbia) / Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) / France:-12 / Portugal:M/18 / Brazil:16 / Canada:18A / South Korea:18 / Finland:K-15

Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller

Runtime: 122 min

Viewed: Sitting in my chair in front of the TV

Trailer:

MTW presents yet another YouTube - No Country for Old Men - AWESOME… video

Synopsis: Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.

Opinion: Wow…talk about a movie of two halves….if ever there was one I think this is it. I’ve heard a lot about this movie as it’s up for a shedload of oscars and people are spouting wonderful and great things about it all over the interweb.

Now I’m not gonna do that, but I’m not gonna slag it off either. It has plus points and minus points in my opinion. Big plus points are the acting from Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and, in particular, Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh (the "bad" guy)…oh and there’s a 25 minute or so appearance from Woody Harrelson, so with a cast like that you’d expect good acting.

The look and feel and tension/atmosphere of this movie is excellent as well. It is pretty well paced and unrelenting for the first 90 minutes or so of the film, it starts with a bang, runs along and keeps you hooked, then sort of peters out towards the conclusion and has the potential to throw up more questions than it answers, but I guess that’s to be expected of the Cohen’s.

I suppose the movie could be classed as a cat & mouse, good guy chases bad guy kinda movie, but this isn’t your typical movie bad guy. He’s a total psychopathic sociopath who seems to be pure evil for the sake of being evil. He takes no real pleasure or enjoyment or satisfaction from what he does…he just does it…and tries to be a philosopher with it…and a haircut that is both hilarious and slightly off kilter enough that you just know this guy isn’t "right".

What also struck me about the movie was the sound…or lack of it. There’s very little musical score which is weird as it’s used in almost every movie and TV show nowadays that you’d think the absence of it would strike you immediately…but it doesn’t. It serves the film really well by not being there.

With all of that said, I think the movie tries to be far more than it actually is and a lot of the fuss and hype over it is more based on the reputation of the Cohen Brothers than the actual movie itself. I think a lot of people are trying to "seem smart" by saying it’s the greatest movie they’ve seen in years, and wow we’re all pretty messed up and gonna die and life/death is all random and blah, blah, blah….when in reality they probably are trying to read a lot more in to the movie than is actually there.

It’s not your typical Bruce Willis, Vin Diesel big budget shoot up with explosions and non-stop action and is quite story driven, but there really isn’t a sympathetic character in the movie…even the "good guy" is quite difficult to get behind as you can’t help but thinking what the hell he thought was going to happen to him by taking $2 million in drug money from the scene of a multiple shoot out/drug deal gone bad? Did he think no-one would miss the cash?? Did he really believe no-one was going to come looking for it??? Was it worth risking his life and that of his girlfriend?????

And finally the ending is just……well unsatisfying. It’s almost like it’s trying to justify the title of the movie and hammer home that there is no place in modern society for the type of people who remember how good life used to be in "the olden days".

So all in all, it’s an OK movie. I don’t think it justifies the hype, but it’s also not as bad as other people are saying either. I think it’s a watch it and make your own mind up, but don’t be surprised if you’re left asking WTF once it’s done.

Acting (Scale from 1 to 5): :thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up:

Story/Plot (Scale from 1 to 5): :thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up:

My Overall Rating (Scale from 1 to 5): :thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up: