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No Country for Old Men:
It's tough to flat out say "I loved this movie." There's a LOT to love about it, but something about the overall idea of the movie irks me a bit. It's almost like the movie has crossed a bit into the pitfall of "movie without purpose" that a lot of arthouse movies fall into. That's not to say that it's pretentious video art... It's not... The story is really fabulous. It's just that I'm having a really hard time grasping what the Cohen Brothers are trying to say with this film. The whole film is really gritty and bleak, and as far as capturing the intensity and emotions of the characters, I think they have struck gold. I'm still just a couple of realizations away from this being one of my top films of the year.
Untraceable:
Almost Unwatchable... It's trying really hard to be a techno-thriller, but it also has elements of the modern "gore porn" genre. To it's credit I don't think it crossed over the line into the same catagory as "Saw" and "The Hills Have Eyes" but it's definately a crazy killer with ornate and interesting, gutwrenching ways of killing people. All the while there is something about the filter and camera style that makes me think they wanted this movie to feel like Silence of the Lambs... Kinda like a slightly bluish, digital, home-movie look to the whole thing. Anyway, Diane Lane is decent actress, but she doesn't carry this movie very well, and the people around her are just terrible. At no point do any of the other FBI officers have a role to play other than standing around. Her partner's storyline is handled so delibrately that you know what's coming around every corner. And the "bad guy" once revealed is just acting creepy. There's nothing special or interesting or new in any performance in this film. My recommendation... See something else.
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