A brilliant film! One of the best in a long time...however-(Spoilers)

Rating: 8/10 (1 February 2008)

Then why you ask do I only give a rating of 8/10?...To leave room for perfection. I should start off by saying that if you have not seen this movie yet, do not read anything about it or any of these reviews; just go see it you will be pleasantly surprised at the realism (despite the nature of the content). For me, a great movie unfolds in a way that I want it to. Thats not to say that it should be predictable, just that things happen in a way that is pleasing to you. Just like in any movie when the bad guy gets his just desserts. You don't have to know how it is going to happen, just that it happens. However, you also don't want the impending doom of your bad guy to be implied either. For me, I want to see every step of his demise. This movie gets it first bad mark in the way that it handles the hero's exit from the film. The story behind the hero's demise is quite good, and quite believable. The problem is how it was shot on screen. As a viewer you are going to miss out on this entire scene. It was like showing up to a scene of a crash the day after it happened. Sure there's skid-marks and broken glass, but how did it unfold? I want to see. The second mark against this otherwise perfect movie, bringing this movie down to an 8/10 is two smaller issues I had. The first was the fact that the hero went back to the scene of the crime at all; then didn't go through all the money and change the money into his own duffel bag. His decision to go back at all wasn't congruent with his clever thinking the rest of the movie. The guy wanting water was an obvious goner. Additionally, I was hoping that Woody Harrelson's character (who is seemingly brilliant) would have not been so easily compromised. Having said all that, the bad guy is fantastically evil and the sound (or lack there of) in this movie is awesome. Silence proves to be much more sinister than any music score would have ever been. It is still one of the top movies of the year.