You have to pay attention.... it helps.

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2008)

I have seen a LOT of the negative reviewers here spouting comments about the movie that are inaccurate. i.e... that Josh Brolin played an officer... he did not. that Bardem's character had no motivation... um, he was hired to track down the money that was involved in the drug transaction. That we are not shown the people behind the drug deal.... um, who cares, that's not what the movie is about. that people in Texas don't talk/act like that... I live in Texas and have spent a lot of time in FAR west Texas and I can tell you, 28 years ago, that is pretty darned close to how it was... that Moss missed the deer at the beginning.... no, he wounded it and was following it's trail when he came across the pit bull that he then followed it's back trail to the "o.k. corral." ( and let's see any of you even hit that target from what looked to be at least 150 yards). that there were no police looking for this "serial killer".... several times Bell or some other person mentioned the FBI going out to the scene several times...other lawmen he came in contact with obviously knew about all of the killings showing that the news had been circulated and people were looking for this guy.
Bottom line, if you pay attention you will understand a lot more of the movie and enjoy it more as well.
Brolin did a great job with his character. There were a couple of "why would he do that" moments that are more the fault of holding true to the book than anything else (like returning to the desert with water for a man who is almost certainly dead already). However, he was very believable... and I liked how he was killed off screen. It was more surprising that way rather than having a build up of anticipation and knowing what is about to happen.
Bardem was brilliant and his character was great. People say why did he do this or why did he do that.... bottom line, he was insane. He was delusional. He has his own rules and he does abide by them. Crazy people don't fit the mold of normal logic and/or morals. In the book he even turns the money over to a third party at the end... A) proving that he did in fact get the money (for you nay-sayers) and B) showing that since he took the job he would finish it.. even though he could have kept the money... he had agreed to bring it to it's owner.
And Tommy Lee was great for the part he needed to play. His ruminations are there to get us into his head as the book did... that is something that never transmits to a screenplay very well. However, it was fun thinking after the movie about what he meant... was he talking about his own death?.... did he feel Bardem would come after him? did the dream about losing money mean that he lost something valuable in not being able to protect the Mosses from death? Nobody knows for sure, maybe not even the author.... these are things that make a movie good people. And sometimes the bad guy wins... in life even more than in the movies. Deal with it.
Overall I gave an 8 because of some of the original plot problems from the book. The acting was great, the cinematography was great, the audio was of course great, and the story is great.
It is a 4 of 5 on the Gargamel Scale. Bringing 1 for acting, 1 for car chases, 1 for explosions/gunfire, and 1 for story. It misses the 1 for nudity which would have been out of place in this movie... and given the great amount of gunfire/explosions and wonderful acting.... I'll boost it to a 4.5... there ya go.