Frustrating -
Added 2/8/2010
Llwellyn Moss, a Vietnam Vet and welder, discovers a drug exchange gone violently wrong. He finds a suitcase of money, and decides to just take the money and run. He lives in a trailer with a young wife, and realizes they are both at risk when he takes the $2 million for himself.
Heading the drug-related transaction, Anton Chigurh, is the psychopathic killer and on Moss' trail like a hound dog. He has no empathy, just dispassionately kills almost every person involved in his hunt for the money. Moss tries to keep one step ahead of the bloodbaths, but Chigurh is relentless.
Sheriff Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) sees the enormity of the crimes, and understands the growing intensity of the pursuit. He is smart, but realistic. He is also soon to be retired.
From the beginning, the Sheriff tries to convince Moss, through his wife, Carla Jean, that he should turn the money over to authorities. He has a bad feeling this is ending in tragedy.
In the end, the cat and mouse game is between Tom and Anton. Tom goes to a hotel room (behind the crime scene yellow tape) where the assassin waits. Chigurh has shot the lock cylinder out, indicating to Ed that it's Chigurh's doing, and both of them watch the other's movement in the reflection in the shiny lock tube. Ed Tom draws his pistol and enters for a search, and realizes the killer is still within, given the locked window in the far room.
The ending surprises you, no matter what you think is going to happen..... The bad news is that the problems raised in the film end up unresolved.
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I love this movie, it started well, got very good in the middle and finished nicely. What more could you want from a movie?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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No Country For Old Men purchase
Added 1/30/2010
The DVD was in excellent condition upon delivery and it was delivered in a very timely manner, I actually didn't even expect as fast as it got here. I was impressed with the whole process.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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One of the Coens Best
Added 1/26/2010
Joel and Ethan Coen came off of a 3-year hiatus to write and direct No Country for Old Men, an adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel that would win them Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director(s), and Best Adapted Screenplay. Three years down the road, the general movie-going public is still trying to decide if they even like the movie and/or if they like it more than There Will Be Blood. No Country for Old Men is not a film that's accessible to anyone as it contains long stretches of no dialogue and an abrupt ending, but the Coen Brothers made a film that stands as one of their best.
Tommy Lee Jones opens the film with a voice-over about old-timers and the difference in the state of the world. Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn Moss, who discovers the scene of a drug deal gone bad and a case filled with $2-million dollars. Now, he's got the mysterious Anton Chigurgh (Javier Bardem) on his trail and trouble around every corner.
The movie certainly sounds like a thriller, but it's much more methodical than my synopsis would imply. It's not boring and the coin-toss scene between Chigurgh and the gas-station attendant is about as suspenseful as scenes get. The dialogue (much of it taken verbatim from McCarthy's novel) is clever and simple, but not always linear. As I said, there are long stretches with no dialogue but few directors' use prolonged moments of silence better than the Coen Brothers.
Joel and Ethan Coen are similar to a director like Stanley Kubrick in the way that their stamp is always on a film. You can watch a few minutes of their films and know it's a Coen creation. In that sense, this is their most restrained effort and the most un-Coen like film by them I've seen.
So, what's so great about the film? Well, the performances are fantastic and Bardem more than deserved his Academy Award for his role as Anton Chigurgh. Even with the goofy haircut, Bardem creates a character so intense and chilling it's possible that Chigurgh could be the 2000's answer to Hannibal Lecter. He's just such an unmerciful character and Bardem really makes you feel that. Brolin is playing a character that's not required to speak much, meaning Brolin has to establish his character through the few words he's given to say and body language. Jones is perfect as always, though not out of his element here. Finally, Woody Harrelson makes an impression with his first scene providing comic relief that doesn't feel forced. The Coens have a gift for getting the best from their actors. The way the actors speak, the way they move; everything is so controlled. The cinematography by Roger Deakins is always a highlight in a Coen Brothers film and here he lends to the noir-ish atmosphere and brings that picturesque, yet gritty sensibility to the film. Even the ending is great, although unexpected. I can see why an intelligent person could be disappointed on their first viewing, but seeing the movie several times should help you realize what a great ending it is. How else could the film have ended? A shoot-out between Chigurgh and Jones' character. This is not that kind of movie.
No Country for Old Men is a great film in many ways. It's a film that begs to be seen more than once and even having seen it several times, it's still a great film. It's a film that will bore many and its abrupt ending will anger others, but you can't ignore the fine filmmaking aesthetic at work here. The Coen Brothers have made a challenging film with one of the most memorable antagonists of the decade and it's certainly worth your time.
GRADE: A-
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If the first 90 minutes are brilliant, the last 30 undo it all....
Added 1/22/2010
"No Country for Old Men" starts out well and continues for the longest time with the deception that it will end just as well as it started. Unfortunately, the last few minutes somehow manage to sabatoge the whole film. This is because the movie doesn't have an ending-- what it does have is an abrupt and unexpected shift where the credits suddenly begin rolling. By that point, the betrayal is so deep that first 90 minutes don't matter.
Perhaps Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post said it best: "By narrative convention then, the movie is building toward a confrontation between [two characters]. We know it, we expect it, the rules of the thriller mandate its necessity. It represents the completion of the bargain the storyteller has made with us. 'No Country for Old Men' then vigorously subverts the convention. It's meant to be 'ironic,' with that big capital I. Instead it's unsatisfying, with a capital U."
The whole of the film gives the impression of leading toward an ending that never happens. What we, the viewers, are left with instead is the undramatic death of the one character we liked, the character we wanted to die walking away unscathed, and Tommy Lee Jones ending the film with some pointless piece of jargon. In the end, you'll wish you could just get back the last two hours of your life (not to mention your money) and completely forget every scene you saw.
It's that bad.
0 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Frustrating -
Added 2/8/2010
Llwellyn Moss, a Vietnam Vet and welder, discovers a drug exchange gone violently wrong. He finds a suitcase of money, and decides to just take the money and run. He lives in a trailer with a young wife, and realizes they are both at risk when he takes the $2 million for himself.
Heading the drug-related transaction, Anton Chigurh, is the psychopathic killer and on Moss' trail like a hound dog. He has no empathy, just dispassionately kills almost every person involved in his hunt for the money. Moss tries to keep one step ahead of the bloodbaths, but Chigurh is relentless.
Sheriff Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) sees the enormity of the crimes, and understands the growing intensity of the pursuit. He is smart, but realistic. He is also soon to be retired.
From the beginning, the Sheriff tries to convince Moss, through his wife, Carla Jean, that he should turn the money over to authorities. He has a bad feeling this is ending in tragedy.
In the end, the cat and mouse game is between Tom and Anton. Tom goes to a hotel room (behind the crime scene yellow tape) where the assassin waits. Chigurh has shot the lock cylinder out, indicating to Ed that it's Chigurh's doing, and both of them watch the other's movement in the reflection in the shiny lock tube. Ed Tom draws his pistol and enters for a search, and realizes the killer is still within, given the locked window in the far room.
The ending surprises you, no matter what you think is going to happen..... The bad news is that the problems raised in the film end up unresolved.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I love this movie, it started well, got very good in the middle and finished nicely. What more could you want from a movie?
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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No Country For Old Men purchase
Added 1/30/2010
The DVD was in excellent condition upon delivery and it was delivered in a very timely manner, I actually didn't even expect as fast as it got here. I was impressed with the whole process.
0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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