A spellbinding masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (11 March 2008)

There have been words described by critics about this movie that seemed to fit the profile: "Masterful!" Gene Shalit, Today Show; "Hypnotic!" Richard Schickel, Time Magazine; "Flawless!" Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times and so many words that I can't give a list.
If the Coen Brothers were to have a class lesson, it would be "How To Murder 101" ever since the 1980's when they started on Blood Simple (1984) before their 90's flick Fargo (1996) where killing people with a wood chipper became an innovated technique; now, in this decade, "No Country For Old Blood" is a nightmarish masterpiece where your nerves will get the best of it. It's the Coen's Trifecta of murder films!
"No Country For Old Men" is not only the title of the film, but a metaphor meaning that if you don't have the balls to take responsible for your actions, then you don't belong in your country. Josh Brolin, who has grown up since his Goonies days, plays Llewelyn Moss, an Ex-Vietnam vet who's a bum living in the country side of Texas with his wife (Scottish actress Kelly McDonald) where anything could happen until Llewelyn happens to be hunting and sees a group of dead bodies before finding a satchel of money near of two million dollars. In another part of town, Anton Chigurh (Academy Award Winner Javier Bardem in the most freakish role) is on the manhunt killing people left and right where he's looking for the two million dollars. His presence is somewhere between Michael Myers of Halloween to Freddy Krugger where no matter what, this killing machine can't be stopped. His weapon of choices are a silenced shotgun with a cattle gun to open doors and pop heads. After the numerous killings and the connection found, Sheriff Ed Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is on the case where he doesn't think that retirement will come anytime soon while hoping he can catch Moss before anybody kills him.
The film has top notch acting from all of its cast both main and supportive. Tommy Lee Jones is fine as Tom Bell, Josh Brolin is outstanding as Moss; but the true standout of this masterpiece is Javier Bardam's award winning performance as Anton Chigurh where once you see his face for the first time and see him in later scenes in either a calm state or his character in a violent rage, your heart will start pounding while feeling more than just a little terrified at the same time. The rest of the cast includes Kelly McDonald hiding her Scottish accent to a Texas voice and Woody Harrelson as a hit-man hired by Stephan Root to catch the psychopathic killer.
It's truly spellbinding!