Easily one of my favorites from last year. The last act worked a lot better for me the second time through and I really dug the music/score.

This is also a really great home theater flick. Great visuals and my sub has never worked harder.

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.

I'm going to buy Sunshine for my DVD collection.

Finally got to see "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" on DVD last week. It's 2 hrs and 47 minutes and features Brad Pitt and Casey Afleek, it's an excellent flick. Gave it 9 Stars same as 3:10 to Yuma, however it's not the same kind of action flick. If you enjoyed a film that builds like Zodiac with Jake Gyllenhaal, then you would like this film. It has it's moments of violence and action, but it's more dramatic.

I just watched it tonight and also thought it was amazing. Its kind of hard for me to describe what I liked about it but the acting, the cinematography, the depth of the characters, and the score were all awesome. I also thought the pacing was good. It seemed like a very cerebral movie more focused on the characters than the plot. I know Frazod hated it with a passion, but once it was over, I honestly felt like watching it again.

I have been wanting to watch this one for a while but haven't gotten around to it since its somewhat long. Really liked the younger Affleck in Gone Baby Gone and am curious how he is in this.

Watched Into the Wild earlier tonight. It may not be for everyone and the first hour of so is kind of uneven, but it ended up being a damn good movie. I had read the book before watching it and the film was quite well done with the last 45 minutes or so being pretty outstanding.

Well, I bought No Country For Old Men sight unseen based on the whole Oscar thing and the rave reviews it got from everybody. Now I sure wish I hadn't.

****SPOILER ALERT*****

I've never seen a movie shift from awesome to WHAT THE fuck WERE THEY THINKING? so fast. The ending sucked balls. SUCKED. BALLS. I know its arty and metaphorical and cerebral and all that that good shit, and is basically Tommy Lee Jones' character's statement on how the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but seriously, there is no payoff at all at the end of this, just disjointed crap. I couldn't believe the protagonist was killed OFF SCREEN by characters barely introduced to the story. Events were deliberately foreshadowed and then... nothing happened. It's neat a couple of times, but when it's done over and over, it's just like repeatedly stiffling a sneeze. AND WHO WAS DRIVING THE OTHER GODDAMN CAR? Dude just lurches down the street with his compound fracture and never even has a look.

Annoying and a huge letdown. I truly feel cheated by that shitsucking ending.

:cuss:

Meh. It was just different, frazod. The ending felt a little weird but made perfect sense. Tommy Lee Jones was just saying "I give up. It's not worth it. Evil wins."

if you bought it on Blu-Ray, I might be interested in buying it from you...

The ending was like, the world is full of violence everywhere and bad guys truly do get away, and this is no country for old men...

the new era passed on the old man

If the first half, 3/4s, hadn't been such a good thriller I could see it. The problem, IMHO, was it feels like two different movies cut together. One a taunt thriller and then a philosophical ending with an old sheriff. Either concept could/would have been a great movie but it's like a roller-coaster that turns into a carousel.

Yep,I'm liking the idea that we're seeing more American movies that don't have that all nicely wrapped up good guy wins ending.The Mist and Requiem For A Dream come to mind.

I understood what the ending meant, and I still didn't like it. Now, I'm not the kind of guy who requires things to be wrapped-up, and I'm the last person on earth who wants the "good guy" to always win in a movie or a book, but it just...ended. There was no substance to it at all.

And I thought exactly the same thing about There Will Be Blood.

Two movies that could have been great that were utterly buried by their conclusions.

IMO, watching No Country For Old Men is like making love to a beautiful woman; she's hot, you're diggin it, and just as you're about to blow your load, she hops out of bed to go make a sandwich.

And no, I didn't buy it on Blu-ray. I haven't made the switch yet.