Unoriginal and Mean Spirited.

Rating: 3/10 (13 September 2008)

I usually like the Cohens and have looked forward to this film for months now. No Country for Old Men is one of my favorite films and I was excited to see how they would follow it up. I was severely disappointed. First of all, I'll agree that the characters are original and the acting was quite good. Brad Pitt had me laughing throughout. But it was the predictability of the plot and the negative world view the Cohens continually express towards the world that really got to me in this film. The explicit graphic violence is unmotivated and done for laughs. I guess in a depraved world that pours into movies like Saw 5, and get their kicks off of watching their fellow human kind die, this works. That really sickens me. But not only that, throughout watching this film I felt obligated to try and like it, and you know what, that's doesn't speak much for your film. The plot circles around and around until finally the realization sinks in that it is going nowhere, there are no character arcs, and the comedy that the Cohens go for has already been done... by themselves. They even try the same joke at one point, taken straight from O' Brother, Where art thou? I'm sure many people will disagree with me and that is fine. But in my opinion this ranks up with the worst of the Cohen Brothers.