The operation was a success...

Rating: 6/10 (6 January 2008)

One of Hitchcock's tenets of good Cinema was that the filmmaker must never cheat the moviegoer; must never leave the audience wanting. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN does just that, repeatedly. While the technical aspects are topnotch all around, the telling of the story leaves more than just a little to be desired. Resolution? Yeah, right. Wonky Woody Harrelson's 'baccer-chewin' cowpoke stands out like a sore thumb in such close proximity as it is to so many so much better, and Brolin literally falls by the wayside in one of the lamest twists I do believe I've ever witnessed in a major motion pitcher. (Hitchcockian only in the PSYCHO sense, it's one of the major reasons I rate this one no higher than a six on the scale of one to ten.) Tommy Lee Jones is great, but being sidelined as he is makes his performance little more than incidental.