Fabulous Films

I finally saw No Country for Old Men tonight, and I have to give it two thumbs up. It's without a doubt the best Coen brothers film ever made. It runs two hours, but I never noticed the running time because I was so completely engaged. I even liked the ending, which seemed to annoy many moviegoers. I'm not into the ends tied up in a bow, all nice and neat and happy. It has a gore factor, but I just tell myself, "It's only a film, with actors, relating a made up story. Nobody got hurt here."

I can't believe Javier Bardem is just nominated for "best supporting actor" because his role was definitely major. There must not be any criteria about percentage of time on the screen in terms of what is considered to be a supporting actor. I'm probably biased because I'm a big fan of his work. He was nominated for best actor for The Sea Inside, but he was robbed. Russell Crowe won for The Gladiator. I don't even see them running that on any of the movie channels, so it must not have been a very memorable performance. Maybe it was one of those deferred Oscars, and it didn't have anything to do with that film.

Bardem isn't the only good thing about this film. The script is fantastic and remains true to Cormac McCarthy's great book. Surprisingly, they left out some memorable dialog from the book. Go figure. The rest of the cast is great most notably Josh Brolin (a pleasant surprise), Tommy Lee Jones, Kelly Macdonald, a Scottish actress I remember from Trainspotting, but with a dead on West Texas accent here--I believed she was from Odessa (Midland's white trash twin city), and, believe it or not, Woody Harrelson, who actually acted so well you forgot he was Woody.

Overall, I got my money's worth. I just hate to pay for a bad film. It's torture to pay to be bored or have your intelligence insulted. I can tell from watching the previews, there are plenty of films around for that.