A bunch of clever ideas, well filmed, but hokey

Rating: 7/10 (11 November 2007)

Sadly, this takes place in 1980, so that cell phones, video cameras and other technology is not around to simplify the story.
**** Spoilers below *****
It has a MacGuffin, which is a plot device for characters to chase around to find. It also uses our high-technology present to look back upon a "simpler" time. And, golly gee whiz, it has MacGyver plot tricks in it. And, let me add, it has elements of "Dogs of War" (a great film for its time: 1981, which had a unique weapon and a sadistic anti-hero). And, I have to say, it had an ending most people won't like, but I found quite satisfying. Hey, like Yogi (cartoon reference) I'm not your average bear.
By the way, I sort of would like to say more about the film, but I really hate it when plot twists are given away, so I am exercising some restraint: I'm not even going to hint about them. But the dialog at times is authentic, but there are predictable moments (to me).
Since I have noted that this contains spoilers, let me add a spoiler from not this film, but from the Terminator series. In that, one character licks the face of a woman who is not under her own control: it is a mild form of rape. And as soon as I saw that, I thought: they are going to kill this guy by first making the audience unsympathetic to him -- and bingo: he was killed in a minute. Similarly for "No Country for Old Men."