Would you be satisfied with a half cooked burger? No? Read on...

Rating: 4/10 (22 September 2008)

Before I start i almost feel i should warn you that i am going to give the ending away, but don't worry because there isn't one! It is worth pointing out that this is not a fault of the film makers but 'Cormac McCarthy' the author of the book. But for the sake of this review i will refer to the film.
Bottom line of this film is that it has so much potential in having a profound resolution, but fails due to that fact that the counterintuitive ending just leaves everything un-concluded. There is no real resolutions to any of the problems that are developed throughout the film, except the fact that 'sometimes in life things don't work out'. Which is all very well, and indeed a good message to get across to the world, but you don't need a full feature length film to explain this obvious fact of life! One scene from the film would have been enough to explain this and then it could move on to something bigger and better like a conclusion or a real ending.
I heard this from a friend after i objected to the ending of the film: 'Oh i think its really clever - besides you just expect everything to conclude because you have been socially conditioned that way' Well, what ever he meant by that it, i can see how that may be true to some extent but that doesn't justify a cock-in-the-arse ending. Take this for an example if i go to MacDonalds i go there to buy a burger, and i expect it to be in a certain condition regardless of whether in reality its just homogenised shite that i only really like due to 'social conditioning'. Moreover what i don't expect is that when the cashier or chef gives me the burger it is half cooked (just enough so that the germs are killed), do i? No, of course not, should it be presented to me in this state and then excuse is given 'oh you are just socially conditioned to expect to be cooked the way it always has been previously', even from a friend, i would be entitled by this fatuous statement to ram it up his arse where it probably came from in the first place.
Most people are like 'oh its really clever' and i know for a fact half of them just say that because they don't understand that the point of the end of the film is that there is no point. I would go as far as underlining the key message of the film - a lack of meaning or point to anything or in other-words 'Nihilism'. The film makes it clear throughout with all its coin tosses, stumbling upon treasure, right-place-right-time wrong-place-wrong-time circumstances that the unforeseen circumstances are all by chance with no guidance by any higher authority just chance and human will. Of course this all fails miserable except for the 'evil' protagonist who succeeds (or so we are left to think). To me i think 'yeah i know the point is that there is no meaning, but i have wiped less meaning on to a piece of paper - its more satisfying too'
The film is thought provoking at best and thought destroying at worst. See it if you want to be left at the end going 'What? What? What? Is that it? i mean yeah i get it but... Come on!?'
Good points:
*Good use of music
*Keeps you interested (but so does any good con-artist)
*Good acting
*Philosophical undertones
Bad Points:
*Good interesting story ruined by (lack of) ending.
I gave it a four out of ten because regardless of 'social conditioning' i expect my burgers to be cooked when i buy one.