A masterpiece of pulp cinema and suspense horror by Joel and Ethan Coen, who have been making movies like this since 1984's classic BLOOD SIMPLE. The story is simple- somewhere out in Dead End, Texas, a down on his luck Vietnam vet (Josh Brolin) comes across a drug deal gone bad. There are lots of dead bodies and an unclaimed satchel full of money a coupla million bucks. He takes the money to start a new life and of course it leads to complete chaos and bloodshed, much like FARGO (also made by the Coen brothers) and Sam Raimi's A SIMPLE PLAN. A psycho hit man/retriever, played by Javier Bardem, is the main maniac pursuing Brolin. Playing the part much like Arnie's TERMINATOR, Bardem is relentless and unstoppable, using a captive bolt pistol as his main weapon of destruction. And when I say destruction, I mean it---Bardem dispassionately lays anyone and everyone in his way to waste, including law enforcement. As Brolin tries to escape with his money, the movie becomes a cat-and-mouse chase, with everyone Brolin loves (including his rather ditzy wife) paying the price for his greedy action of taking that money. Tommy Lee Jones plays a Sheriff sick of the gory drug landscape that his world has become, kind of on the cusps of all the action, but somehow always missing it. Woody Harrelson does a nice turn as a "good" hit man sent in to stop Bardem. The action scenes, suspense, and bloody thrills are at an all-time high for this movie with sparse dialogue, the Coen Brothers at the top of their Hitchcock-ian game. The ending, while not satisfying in the Hollywood "everything wraps up" sense, is most unexpected and draws more from reality, fate, and chance than anything else...and it works just dandy when you ponder it over. Twisted, thrilling, brutal, and breathtaking, NO COUNRTY FOR OLD MEN should not be missed. Not sure what took me so long to catch up to it.
A masterpiece of pulp cinema and suspense horror by Joel and Ethan Coen, who have been making movies like this since 1984's classic BLOOD SIMPLE. The story is simple- somewhere out in Dead End, Texas, a down on his luck Vietnam vet (Josh Brolin) comes across a drug deal gone bad. There are lots of dead bodies and an unclaimed satchel full of money a coupla million bucks. He takes the money to start a new life and of course it leads to complete chaos and bloodshed, much like FARGO (also made by the Coen brothers) and Sam Raimi's A SIMPLE PLAN. A psycho hit man/retriever, played by Javier Bardem, is the main maniac pursuing Brolin. Playing the part much like Arnie's TERMINATOR, Bardem is relentless and unstoppable, using a captive bolt pistol as his main weapon of destruction. And when I say destruction, I mean it---Bardem dispassionately lays anyone and everyone in his way to waste, including law enforcement. As Brolin tries to escape with his money, the movie becomes a cat-and-mouse chase, with everyone Brolin loves (including his rather ditzy wife) paying the price for his greedy action of taking that money. Tommy Lee Jones plays a Sheriff sick of the gory drug landscape that his world has become, kind of on the cusps of all the action, but somehow always missing it. Woody Harrelson does a nice turn as a "good" hit man sent in to stop Bardem. The action scenes, suspense, and bloody thrills are at an all-time high for this movie with sparse dialogue, the Coen Brothers at the top of their Hitchcock-ian game. The ending, while not satisfying in the Hollywood "everything wraps up" sense, is most unexpected and draws more from reality, fate, and chance than anything else...and it works just dandy when you ponder it over. Twisted, thrilling, brutal, and breathtaking, NO COUNRTY FOR OLD MEN should not be missed. Not sure what took me so long to catch up to it.
