No Country for Old Men

[topspeed]

Finally saw this movie after missing it in the theaters and I must say I was completely underwhelmed. Great performances from Bardem and (surprisingly) Brolin, but best picture?!?

Hardly.

Gone Baby Gone offered a far better story with equivalent acting and a much more enjoyable pace. Glaciers move quicker than No Country. I'm no film critic (if I was I'D BE WRITING IN ALL CAPS), but I just don't understand the infatuation with the Coen Brothers. Raising Arizona is the only movie of theirs that I have enjoyed. I literally walked out on their other Best Pic winner, Fargo. Mebbe I'm not sophisticated enough? When reviewer after reviewer hailed No Country as a return to the great Westerns of yore, I was ready with money in hand, but this movie is no Unforgiven. Heck, Open Range was better than this.

Blechh.

[Mr Peabody]

Do you like Unforgiven? In my book if it's worse than Unforgiven it's baaaaaaad. I haven't seen NCFOM yet and you are really ruining it for me Or maybe saving me.

[jamison]

you know the picture on blue ray is reference quality and the PCM soundtrack isnt bad but the movie moved me about as much as watching paint dry.

[SlumpBuster]

and (surprisingly) Brolin

I second that. When did the jagg off brother from The Goonies become the "go to" guy? He also had another great, if limited roll, in American Gangster this year.

[topspeed]

Mr. P,

To me, Unforgiven ranks as a Top 3 all time western and certainly the best of the modern era. Munny's transformation from farmer back to cold blooded killer was facinating. However, if it wasn't your cup 'o tea, try on No Country and see if it fits. I was discussing it yesterday with a friend of mine who also loves westerns and he really enjoyed the Sam Peckinpaw'ish quality to No Country (he also loved Unforgiven). Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks.

[Groundbeef]

Finally saw this movie after missing it in the theaters and I must say I was completely underwhelmed. Great performances from Bardem and (surprisingly) Brolin, but best picture?!?

Hardly.

Gone Baby Gone offered a far better story with equivalent acting and a much more enjoyable pace. Glaciers move quicker than No Country. I'm no film critic (if I was I'D BE WRITING IN ALL CAPS), but I just don't understand the infatuation with the Coen Brothers. Raising Arizona is the only movie of theirs that I have enjoyed. I literally walked out on their other Best Pic winner, Fargo. Mebbe I'm not sophisticated enough? When reviewer after reviewer hailed No Country as a return to the great Westerns of yore, I was ready with money in hand, but this movie is no Unforgiven. Heck, Open Range was better than this.

Blechh.

You lost me at Fargo. How can you not like a movie that culminates with a person being fed into a woodchipper in the middle of the winter?

That movie was a bit slow to move, but it was a great film.

Now on the other hand....Unforgiven was a total waste. Saw that at a drive in. Thank goodness my Fiance had a big Oldsmobile. We put that 2 hours to better use.

[Smokey]

You lost me at Fargo. How can you not like a movie that culminates with a person being fed into a woodchipper in the middle of the winter?

That movie was a bit slow to move, but it was a great film.

Now on the other hand....Unforgiven was a total waste.

Tend to agree with you there beef. Loved Fargo, but Unforgiven not as much.

Coen Brothers might have setup too higher marks for themselves with movies such as Raisng Arizona, Fargo and Big Lebowski, and sometimes they can't match it.

[Mr Peabody]

Alright, No Country may wait until it hits the movie channels. Silverado is one of my benchmarks for modern westerns and it is pretty old now. 310 To Yuma wasn't bad. There was a really good western out a few years ago that starred Jewel, took place during the Civil War, great movie but I can't remember the title for the life of me.

[3-LockBox]

I have to agree with Topspeed and say that the I have a hard time deciding who is more over-rated; the Coen Brothers or Quinten Tarrentino. I mean, they make OK movies, but the hyperbole...its definitely very hip to heap praise on their stuff. And I loved Unforgiven.

[topspeed]

You lost me at Fargo. How can you not like a movie that culminates with a person being fed into a woodchipper in the middle of the winter?

Because I'd have to sit through 2 hours of "Oh, yeah! You betcha!" Hell, I'd rather be next to go in the woodchipper! It'd be less painful, that's for sure.

[Groundbeef]

Because I'd have to sit through 2 hours of "Oh, yeah! You betcha!" Hell, I'd rather be next to go in the woodchipper! It'd be less painful, that's for sure.

It all depends on what your used too. I've spent plenty of time up them thar parts, and the local dialect doesn't really bother me.

I think Wisconsin is worse.

[Mr Peabody]

Wisconsin? What about them Californians? Don't you know!

[Worf101]

I found NCFOM to be fantastic. I thought that it was the best of a lot for a weak year in Movies all round. The main character/villain, is the most chilling thing I've seen on screen in recent memory. I loved this movie. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Brolin did a good job as a man too dumb and honest to be a good criminal. I truly felt for him and his family.

Da Worfster

[nightflier]

Wow, I was almost afraid to chime in. Fortunately someone else liked NCFOM. And yes, Bardeem made the film what it was. He's made some great films, but this was a real tour-de-force for him. I expect that this film will raise his value in Hollywood quite a bit, even if the movie hadn't won a single award.

Regarding Unforgiven, that was also a great film, certainly more thought-provoking than 3:10 to Yuma was. Now I've been a fan of Eastwood for years (own all the movies in one format or another). While I still hold his spaghetti Westerns as the bar to measure every other Western against, I think that a deeper story-line adds substantially to the quality of the film and Unforgiven is right up there. Eastwood's newer films have become much deeper and introspective as he got older and as a director he asks the same of his actors.

Maybe too many people expected NCFOM to be a shoot-em-up-at-the-OK-Corral kind of film and it simply isn't. As far as the Coen brothers are concerned, I would go as far as saying that this film is their most serious effort to date, perhaps even out of character for them. Granted, it's not a fast-paced film, but the work of a hired killer rarely is fast paced.

Now I'm not trying to get overly psychoanalytical here, but try and imagine for a minute what a real-life assassin's typical day-at-the-office must be like. How does he choose the weapon? How much pain should he inflict? How long should it take to snuff out a life? How does he extract information from people along the way to his final mark? How does he evade capture? How does clean up after his work is done? What does he do with the bodies? Where does he live/hide? Perhaps more importantly, what kind of person is this? How does he justify his actions? How does he cope with being a murderer, a torturer, perhaps even a butcher? Or is he completely without conscience? This is the life that NCFOM gives us, ordinary folk, a glimpse of.

No offense meant to Worf, here, but if people think that this life is anything like the sorry tale of Vincent, Jules, and Marcellus, well then that's pretty uninformed. Yes, I know Hollywood will take liberties with reality for the sake of entertainment, but that doesn't mean it should always be so. NCFOM isn't perfect, but it's one hell of a ride. The more I think of how actually real this could be (kind of the way Seven made many people feel), the more disturbing and harrowing this movie becomes.

[Mr Peabody]

I have many of Clint's spaghetti westerns and they are among my favorites, along with some John Wayne but Unforgiven was so slow and mostly uneventful until the end of the movie. It's been awhile since I've seen it. That one time was enough. Maybe it wasn't what I expected at the time. I remember the first time I saw Get Shorty I didn't like it. It was right after Pulp Fiction and I was expecting something like that. I watched it later and liked it a lot. I guess once over the shock and knowing what to expect allowed me to take in the movie for what it was. Some day maybe I'll be brave enough to watch Unforgiven again. I'm not really one to sit through a movie about or including sports so I put off watching Million Dollar Baby. One day I was home sick and it came on Cinemax and I watched it. That is a great movie. One of the things that I enjoyed about this movie, aside from the story, was the great supporting actors. To have a great movie or TV program you have to have the majority of the cast good or at least interesting. Eastwood's ability showed he came a long way since the Gauntlet.

OK, I can see I will have to rent NCFOM and see which side of the fence I fall on. Some of the movies I enjoy the most are off the wall or at least something you can tell hasn't come right out of the Hollywood cookie cutter. I did like Fargo. Not enough to buy it but I was glad I watched it. I'm probably one of the few people who actually liked that Nicholas Cage movie where he was the ambulance driver.

[Spancticles]

you people are crazy
unforgiven was fantastic
but it was unique
it spent most of the movie
uninventing the myth of the shootout (western)
and then reinventing it at the end

[Worf101]

Wow, I was almost afraid to chime in. Fortunately someone else liked NCFOM. And yes, Bardeem made the film what it was. He's made some great films, but this was a real tour-de-force for him. I expect that this film will raise his value in Hollywood quite a bit, even if the movie hadn't won a single award......


No offense meant to Worf, here, but if people think that this life is anything like the sorry tale of Vincent, Jules, and Marcellus, well then that's pretty uninformed.

I agree with the first quote 100 percent. Second, you'd have to do a lot more than that to offend me. I like the character Sam played, the style the bravura. While I enjoyed Pulp Fiction I loved NCFOM. Simple as that.

Da Worfster

[johnny p]

I liked it...... I liked it a lot.

[sgt bass08]

No country for old men was a awesome film.i like the way they made the bad guy he was fun to watch threw out the moive. there was great ideas speacial the gun that thing was grazy .also the beeper thing that was on the money was pretty kool idea .like someone mention before it was like watching a Quentin Tarantino film witch i love them kind off films .

ps i thought tommy lee jones could have played the guy who was getting chased with the money as tommy didnt have to much to play in the film. my vote 8.9/10

[kexodusc]

Finally saw this.

I must be starved for a good new releases because I moderately enjoyed it. But damn, this is a far cry from the "Best Picture" quality I'm used to.

[sgt bass08]

hey kexodusc whats with the motto only i use war on here.

[kexodusc]

hey kexodusc whats with the motto only i use war on here.

Better question, why you winking and kissing at me?

[sgt bass08]

Better question, why you winking and kissing at me?

Lol i was little high on the caffeine at the time .

[nightflier]

For those wanting the old shoot-em-up-at-the-ok-corral experience, I just saw Smoking Aces. That is a positively disturbing, violent, shoot-everything-to-hell kind of movie. Nothing like NCFOM, and definitely lower quality (it's got Ben Afleck) but for those who didn't care for the latter, maybe that will float your boat.

[ForeverAutumn]

I'm probably one of the few people who actually liked that Nicholas Cage movie where he was the ambulance driver.

Bringing Out the Dead. Great movie!