I absolutely hated No Country For Old Men, and I am serious about it.

Rating: 1/10 (14 February 2008)

The Coen Brothers, one of America's most talented directors, with a string of terrific films behind them have changed Cormac McCarthy's controversial novel into the front runner at this year's Oscar ceremonies.
Unforuantely, as in year's past, this film, is going to purely divide moviegoers. Critics and Academy members are going to reward the Coen brothers for their adaptation of McCarthy's novel. Moviegoers, on the other hand, seem to have a divided opinion of this film.
I saw this film with a completely divided audience. The storyline, concerns a drug deal gone badly in the Texas outback. A retired welder and Vietnam veteran, played by Josh Brolin comes across a case full of thousands of dollars in the pick up truck of a Mexican drug dealer. Unforuantely he doesn't realize the case has a homing device, which hired killer, Anton Chigurh, played to complete chilling effect, by Javier Bardem who easily steals the movie from the rest of the cast, uses to track him down.
Chigurh, has deadly ways of killing off those who stand in his way, including a contraption used to kill off livestock, which he uses to blow open door locks and people's heads off with ease. Chigurh, pursues Llewelyn Moss, played by Brolin and his wife, who he sent off to Odessa, in hopes of outrunning the cunning Chigurh, with only local sheriff, Bell, (Tommy Lee Jones) who has a chance of protecting them.
I won't give much more details except to say that this film felt like half a movie, the two main characters' and their stories felt completely unfinished, and that was the key problem with McCarthy's novel. I am a huge fan of the Coen Brothers and their films, Fargo, one of the best films of the 1990s, The Big Lebowski, one of the funniest films I have ever seen, and a film that I watch on a regular basis, heck, I even enjoyed The Hucksucker Proxy, but, like last year, with the overrated, Martin Scorsese film The Departed, I think that critics and academy members are looking to reward the Coen Brother's work, rather than their film.
I'm not going to say it's overrated, just that the ending felt completely unfinished. The film doesn't state what happens to either Chigurh, or Moss. The audience and many people who I have spoken with felt the film was completely unfinished, and felt like half a movie. I agree with them. Unfortunately, I think the academy will reward the Coen brothers for this film, rather than they did with their far superior Fargo in 1996 which covered similar territory as No Country For Old Men.