When a man stumbles on a bloody crime scene a pickup truck loaded with heroin & 2 million dollars in irresistible cash his decision to take the money sets off an unstoppable chain of violence. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 12/26/2008 Starring: Tommy Lee Jones Josh Brolin Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R
The Coen brothers make their finest thriller since Fargo with a restrained adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel. Not that there aren't moments of intense violence, but No Country for Old Men is their quietest, most existential film yet. In this modern-day Western, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a Vietnam vet who could use a break. One morning while hunting antelope, he spies several trucks surrounded by dead bodies (both human and canine). In examining the site, he finds a case filled with $2 million. Moss takes it with him, tells his wife (Kelly Macdonald) he's going away for awhile, and hits the road until he can determine his next move. On the way from El Paso to Mexico, he discovers he's being followed by ex-special ops agent Chigurh (an eerily calm Javier Bardem). Chigurh's weapon of choice is a cattle gun, and he uses it on everyone who gets in his way--or loses a coin toss (as far as he's concerned, bad luck is grounds for death). Just as Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a World War II vet, is on Moss's trail, Chigurh's former colleague, Wells (Woody Harrelson), is on his. For most of the movie, Moss remains one step ahead of his nemesis. Both men are clever and resourceful--except Moss has a conscience, Chigurh does not (he is, as McCarthy puts it, "a prophet of destruction"). At times, the film plays like an old horror movie, with Chigurh as its lumbering Frankenstein monster. Like the taciturn terminator, No Country for Old Men doesn't move quickly, but the tension never dissipates. This minimalist masterwork represents Joel and Ethan Coen and their entire cast, particularly Brolin and Jones, at the peak of their powers. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
Deserves "0" Stars!:
I totally agree with all the other 1 star reviewers. A total waste of time! Sitting thru 2 hours of violence and then "bingo" - NO ENDING!
I should have known it was trash - after all it received the Academy Awards....
Enough said - don't waste YOUR time!
Looks Like There's a Consensus Here:
Skimming through all of the other reviews, it appears that whether this movie is rated highly or not everyone agrees that it begins really strong but loses steam about 2/3 of the way through. I enjoyed the film...but you can put me in that category as well. The first half is some of the Coen Brothers' best filmmaking. The actors are particularly strong in their roles and the storytelling is lean and driven. Javier Bardem makes the movie, portraying the unstoppable "ghost" (not a literal one but... more info
Not the best from the Coens:
The Coen brothers give us a cinematic bloodbath, but with a message- Old People don't like this sort of thing. People just don't have manners anymore. It used to be that when people killed people in movies, back in the good ol' days when old people were young, they got what was comin' to them. Now we live in a messed up world where serial killers murder people with compressed air canisters, and they don't feel sorry for it.
The point of all this on-screen killing is for Old Man Sheriff (Tommy Lee... more info
Horrible!!!:
It's one of those "What the heck was that!!" movies. It was very good up until the end. 1st of all, I think Tommy Lee Jones' character was utterly useless. So was the deputy. My goodness what was the point. I won't spoil the movie, because I dislike when reviewers do that, but i will say that the end is extremely disatisfying. The acting was excellent, in every way, but the character placement was very out of place. The ending is so utterly ridiculous that I got the sense that they ran out of ideas for... more info
![The Dark Knight (+ Digital Copy and BD Live) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HZyS6RP6L._SL75_.jpg)
