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Rated: R
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Beth Grant, Garret Dillahunt
Directed by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
The only way I can describe No Country for Old Men is with a resounding WOW! The film captures your interest from the beginning to its bizarre ending. The Coen Brothers regain the title of unusual and twisted filmmaking. The target audience will understand when I say "it"s Quentin Tarantino with a pinch of Robert Rodriguez.”
 Llewelyn (Brolin) has been having a uneventful hunting trip
in the South Texas badlands near the Mexican
border. He finally gets a shot at a
deer, but the wounded buck has enough life left to scamper off into the
brush. Trailing the wounded animal, he
comes up on a horrifying sight, several Mexicans and Americans lying dead from a
drug deal gone wrong.
Finding drugs and
the $2 million loot left in the melee, he scampers back to his trailer, miles
away from the terrifying death site.
But, thinking about the millions in drugs he left behind, he decides to
return to the scene of the crime only to become the prey for a different kind
of hunter.
The acting
and plot are amazingly good in this relentless action-drama. Jones gets to play out a role similar to his
Marshal Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive, but this time, he’s mellower. He’s a thinking man’s cop who watches from
the outside waiting until he knows his quarry is ready to be captured.
Brolin does an awesome job of being the
hunter and the hunted. His crafty
Llewelyn gets himself in and out of danger until he has nowhere else to run. But, his antagonists are relentless and
sinister killers that will stop at nothing to get their drugs and money
back. The most disturbing killer is
Anton (Bardem), a cold-blooded, ruthless executioner who loves to kill at the
flip of a coin—he rarely looses.
The
direction by the Coen brothers, with their up-in-your-face storytelling, has little
competition for top dog in this genre with No Country for Old Men. As tough as it is to watch, the mix of story
with excellent cinematography and special effects makes it a film to be
recognized.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good action-drama that will keep
your interest throughout. Don’t take
your hunting trips too close to the Mexican Border.
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