No Compliments For Ole Coens

Rating: 3/10 (8 October 2009)

From the praise and ratings this movie has received here and to the Oscar recognition that it received, I must have missed something. Something extremely essential. What it is I can't imagine. Yes, the acting was good as was the cinematography. The element of suspense was there also. But that's about where it ends for me. Praising anything else like the story or direction would be like sucking up to the Coen brothers past successes. "Money and success cover up a lot of stink", I believe Elizabeth Taylor once said. That might explain why this movie has been overly lauded. The world is full of real threats. The world of thieves and drug dealers is harsh and real. Sometimes those worlds collide with our own. That's a story that could be told through a set of fictionalized circumstances in a manner far more worthwhile than it was here. However, this film is nothing more than a self-indulgent presentation of an over-the-top blood-thirst fantasy. It's a pity that so many of us need for our fears to be presented to us much the way that we might face them through a "scary" roller-coaster or a walk through a frightful haunted house in October....as nothing more than a lark and nothing to give more serious contemplation to.