Olympic Grade Snooker Team (warning - spoilers)

Rating: 4/10 (27 January 2008)

The Coen Bros. are laughing all the way to the bank. Many critics often rave about products that are incoherent but somehow have the appearance of lucidity. These critics certainly do not want anyone to know they have been snookered. No Country for Old Men is perhaps the crowning achievement for this "tongue-in-cheek" crowd.
Here we have a film that builds up to great expectation with meticulously crafted tension and extraordinary production values, casting and performances but in the first part of the third act simply stops. Strong characters rendered by actors in good performances are either killed or hinted at being killed with no scenaric detail. The killer whose enigmatic character has become magnetic simply drives off into the horizon suffering only a broken arm in a mindless car accident. Cosmic intervention or comic relief?
The overall feeling is that the Coens ran out of budget but one can also strongly suspect that it might be that they decided to simply screw the audience and see if they could get away with it in a bizarre and sinister mind-set perhaps borne of some kind of chemical or psychological overdose. In any event at this writing it appears that they have, especially with eight Oscar nominations, at least for a great number of fans and critics not yet sure of themselves.
The movie is about as fulfilling and satisfying as being stood-up by an important romantic date for which one has spent half a day preparing. The level of impact and effect then depends upon one's level of masochistic personality, sense of self or overall intelligence.