No Country for Old Men - Review
I just saw No Country for Old Men recently and felt inclined to write a review for it. The fact that this movie won Best Picture at the Oscars is also what sparks my feelings of both happiness and disappointment.
I really got sucked into the movie at the beginning, it started out very interesting. I liked the setting, Texas circa 1980, and felt the actors all did a great job of making you feel as if you were immersed back into that era. Josh Brolin was very believable as the hero, who had his faults but very logical and inherently good. Javier Bardem was a great villain, really played that part well. The introduction of Woody Harrelson's and Tommy Lee Jones' characters was equally intriguing.
Everything was going great for me until ... SPOILER ALERT ... it seemed that there was a very anti-climactic build-up towards the latter half of the film. Woody Harrelson goes out, well like a bitch. Very disappointing after his overly confident actions up until that point. I can live with a little irony, but it gets worse. Much worse.
At the beginning of the film, it was interesting to see the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad. Dead bodies and spent ammunition everywhere, they even killed the dog (yes I threw that in from a line from the movie, heh heh). But then to basically, barely see the tail end of a similar battle that ends up offing our hero (you don't even get to see this I might add) was very displeasing. You really felt as if he was on a one-man mission to kill the assassin at all costs. Such a let down.
Then, onto what looked to be the final showdown between Tommy Lee Jones and the baddie, with a very dramatic buildup of him slowly entering the hotel room with Javier Bardem's character clutching his bad ass silencer equipped shotgun in the shadows.....then nothing yet again. No face-off. And to end the movie with some random car accident that injures Javier Bardem pretty bad, to which he walks off down the street. All this after tieing up a loose end and killing poor Kelly Macdonald's character Carla Jean.
What really prompts me to write such a negative review is based on the fact that I feel this movie could have been much better (in my non-Oscar awards effecting opinion) had it followed more of a satisfying yet still honest and believable path. Maybe all the good guys don't need to live in the end and all the bad guys get punished, but dish out a little bit of cold hard justice to leave the audience more satisfied. There was no closure. Just random events that you sometimes got to witness. Maybe I just expect to be entertained slightly more at a basic, caveman level than to be left with a piece of interesting and unique art to be appreciated at face value. I don't regret having watched the movie, but when the credits rolled, I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated.
I really got sucked into the movie at the beginning, it started out very interesting. I liked the setting, Texas circa 1980, and felt the actors all did a great job of making you feel as if you were immersed back into that era. Josh Brolin was very believable as the hero, who had his faults but very logical and inherently good. Javier Bardem was a great villain, really played that part well. The introduction of Woody Harrelson's and Tommy Lee Jones' characters was equally intriguing.
Everything was going great for me until ... SPOILER ALERT ... it seemed that there was a very anti-climactic build-up towards the latter half of the film. Woody Harrelson goes out, well like a bitch. Very disappointing after his overly confident actions up until that point. I can live with a little irony, but it gets worse. Much worse.
At the beginning of the film, it was interesting to see the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad. Dead bodies and spent ammunition everywhere, they even killed the dog (yes I threw that in from a line from the movie, heh heh). But then to basically, barely see the tail end of a similar battle that ends up offing our hero (you don't even get to see this I might add) was very displeasing. You really felt as if he was on a one-man mission to kill the assassin at all costs. Such a let down.
Then, onto what looked to be the final showdown between Tommy Lee Jones and the baddie, with a very dramatic buildup of him slowly entering the hotel room with Javier Bardem's character clutching his bad ass silencer equipped shotgun in the shadows.....then nothing yet again. No face-off. And to end the movie with some random car accident that injures Javier Bardem pretty bad, to which he walks off down the street. All this after tieing up a loose end and killing poor Kelly Macdonald's character Carla Jean.
What really prompts me to write such a negative review is based on the fact that I feel this movie could have been much better (in my non-Oscar awards effecting opinion) had it followed more of a satisfying yet still honest and believable path. Maybe all the good guys don't need to live in the end and all the bad guys get punished, but dish out a little bit of cold hard justice to leave the audience more satisfied. There was no closure. Just random events that you sometimes got to witness. Maybe I just expect to be entertained slightly more at a basic, caveman level than to be left with a piece of interesting and unique art to be appreciated at face value. I don't regret having watched the movie, but when the credits rolled, I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated.
posted by Chris at 10:14 AM
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