first of all, like all Hollywood films, all bad guys always succeed, all the time. Ho hum. No originality there. Second of all, despite all the hype, there is no symbolsm or thought here. There is supposedly action, but the movie plods in complete ennui. And the major characters are stereotypical cardboard cutouts you could care less about.
The plot is lame. Nothing makes a bit of sense. There is no chesiveness, and no one cares. The ignorant masses will eat up the hype on what amounts to a snipe hunt that the directing, writing, and producing crew take them on, and no doubt snicker about while the ignorant masses hold the snipe bag. There is no value at all to this piece of garbage.
It seems a shame, when so many good writers have good scripts about a man finding a cache of money, and this propoganda shows up. It is intended to show that big brother knows where you are all the time, and will always know everything you do. There are those so ignorant and naive they believe this. Those people are still holding the bag. This movie will be scoffed at by anyone with an IQ over 15.

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Cormac McCarthy and the Coen brothers. Pure genius.

Gripping. Simply gripping. I’d rate Javier Bardem’s portrayal of the heartlessly calm and calculating psychotic killer Anton Chigurh right up there with Anthony Hopkins’ creation of Hannibel Lechter. The movie is essentially a hunter/prey story ignited by a big drug deal gone terribly wrong. The tension begins with the strangulation of a sheriff’s deputy in West Texas and runs right through Bloodshed and Mayhem to a totally unexpected (but fully consistent with the fil’ms fatalistic theme) freak accident. (Oops, did I give something away?... No, I think not.) Josh Brolin plays the lead, Llewwlyn Moss, with cowbot country panache. Kudos to Tommy Lee Jones as the “old man” Sheriff and Woody Harrelson in a small role as a sophisticated hired gun. See this! By all means.

i rented this the same time as michael clayton, and kept putting it off. i was disappointed in clayton, and for some reason i had this movie pegged as a subtitled, mexican drama, and just wasn’t in the mood to watch it. boy, was i wrong. yes, there are mexicans, but nowhere to be found is the subtitles. a gritty, drug cartel type movie with the west as a backdrop. as a character the landscape set the mood. desolate, wide, harsh, sparse. i loved jarvier bardem’s character. he was methodical in his madness. i could listen to him speak for hours. he sends shivers down my spine. the only thing i wasn’t too fond of was the end. it kind of ended abruptly for my taste. looking back, the conversation w/his wife about his dream of his father and how he would always be there when he caught up could be replaced w/bardem’s character. i just wanted the story to go on more, i wasn’t ready for it to end.

Where Michael Clayton (another Oscar nominated flick that disappointed heavily)failed to ignite, this delivered on all cylinders.
I learned that Javier Bardem cant drive, can hardly speak English, and he abhors violence.
Given the genius of the Cohen brothers, it was probably exactly why they choose him for the role.

i need to watch this again.

Eight hours after my initial viewing and subsequent decision that I never wanted to see “No Country for Old Men” again – here I was, raptly watching it with my boyfriend. What was I thinking? This was the film that had kept my body so tense and dread-filled for two hours that I was physically exhausted and a little nauseous. Although I had respect for the film after my initial viewing, I couldn’t bring myself to mark it “Worth Consuming” because I hadn’t enjoyed it. Not a second of it. So as the tension started to become palpable again, why was I still watching it? Because this time I was enjoying it. Well, a little at least.

On my first viewing, all I could focus on was the sense of dread that filled the screen every time Javier Bardem appeared. It is hard to even pinpoint what makes him so damn scary. We’ve seen psychoathic killers before. The dead stare, the menacing voice, the worry that anyone who comes in contact with him won’t make it through the scene alive. But Bardem escalates all of this to a new level and creates one of the scariest film villains in history. His Dorothy Hamill-style haircut accentuates his large face, making him into a modern Frankenstein monster, slow walk included. I’m not one easily scared during films, and maybe in other hands Chigurh would have been only menacing. What the Coen brothers bring to the film is a sense that fate is at play, that you cannot avoid the awful things to come. These themses are difficult to translate from written word to film, but they do it skillfully. Every moment of the film is sparse, minimal – there are long stretches of silence that others would have filled with moody soundtrack. Yet, as much as it is about unavoidable fate, it is also about the decisions we make. Josh Brolin tells his wife that he is about to go do something very stupid, but he does it anyway. They are all compelled along this destructive path whether it be from sense of duty, greed, or a very grim moral ethic.

I didn’t pick up all of this the first time. It wasn’t until I rewatched the film that I was able to concentrate on anything besides the struggle. It was hard to even pick up on most of the dark humor at first. I have officially changed my opinion to “Worth Consuming.” It is a brilliant movie. I still can’t say it was my favorite film of the year, but definitely one that will be watched, rewatched, and studied for decades.

The Cohen brothers have left their mark on American film, no doubt about that; “Fargo” is one of my favourites, where everything in it, like a puzzle, made a wonderful big picture. The same goes for this film, where script, direction, acting and cinematography play equal parts alongside long-time Cohen-accomplice Carter Burwell’s chilling soundtrack to make this a film about consequence, circumstance and cold-blooded action – the latter in stark contract to Tommy Lee Jones’ brilliant portrayal of an experienced and jaded – yet human – sheriff. It must be said that I think Javier Bardem’s performance is worthy of the Oscar he won a week ago. He’s chilling like hell, but as written was, not only because of his supreme acting, but the script, cinematography, the Cohen’s sublime sense of using silence, timing and soundtrack. This is a must-see film.