Reaction: No Country for Old Men

Just came back from "No Country for Old Men."

I would like to thank Javier Bardem for playing the perfect crazy. If it wasn't for him, I would have to rate this movie in the negatives.

I swear, I do not understand why reviews of this film said it was the "best yet" from the Coen Brothers (not that I'm all that familiar with their work - because if this is indeed the best they have to offer, I'd hate to watch one of their stinkers). It had its moments (all of them featuring Bardem as the insane assassin. But this tale of a drug-deal-gone-wrong and the chase of a case full of cash across west Texas... well, it sounds a lot better than it turned out to be.

The themes of Tommy Lee Jones as a man out of his element (a old-time sheriff who finds the world changing around him, i.e.: violent crimes of America) are not lost on me. In fact, it's kind of force-fed from the moment the film starts: he voices the opening narration talking about the way his father and grandfather used to do things. But I think the ultimate failing of the film is that itself: we don't actually meet Tommy Lee Jones' character until at least 20 or 30 minutes into the movie.

In fact, for a long time, we're not even sure if this movie is about poor old Josh Brolin's character (a retired war-veteran who stumbles on the case of money first) or the assassin (who we actually meet first) or Jones as the police officer who... well... arguably has the longest do-nothing dialogue scenes. It's a crime how long those scenes drag on. So long, that when the denouement came rolling around, I wasn't even sure it was supposed to be the end of the movie! (the screen went black and then the first credits started to appear before I realized it).

Alright, so maybe I'm being harsh - I was uncomfortable because I happen to sit in the seat that staggered with the next row at just the right interval where the drink-holder in front of me was at the exact position where my left knee should be. So I had to sit crooked for the entire duration of the screening. And secondly, because I had arrived early and decided to have a sandwich in the building for supper, I was charged an additional $2 for the underground parking because I was there for over the 3 hour allocation for a movie. And that sucked too.

I have a record for giving every movie its fair chance... but all things considered, a screwed up film like "Across the Universe" was easily more entertaining than this was.