Not worth your time, nor an Academy Award, nor ANY award. A waste of time.

Rating: 1/10 (8 July 2008)

Fortunately, I borrowed this disc (Blu-Ray) from a friend. Many of us use that common rating system: Is it worth seeing at the theater, or wait until it comes out on disc and rent it? Thankfully I didn't pay anything to see this movie because that's what it was worth. Bottom line, don't waste your time; it's VERY unfulfilling.
I don't have any faith in the Academy Awards choosing best picture any longer. It seems that they had to give it to something, so why not this? I generally enjoy Tommy Lee Jones's acting, but for him to portray a Texas sheriff isn't much of a stretch at all; he's practically been typecast (US Marshalls, The Fugitive, etc). He's just older and more tired in this movie.
The movie meanders along showing us senseless killings by the antagonist using a cattle gun and a shotgun with an enormous (uh, movie blunder) brushed nickel silencer (shotgun silencers are not very effective, and only cut the VERY loud noise by about 5-6 dB). The protagonists' character development never takes place, and we're supposed to sympathize with the older sheriff's bleak perspective of the country, senseless brutality, and futility of justice all from his monologue at the opening of the film and a few short scenes a few friends or his wife. It doesn't happen.
Without giving anything away, the ending will probably leave you questioning: "What, that's it?" You might sit there staring blankly at the screen (as many people did after Blair Witch Project) wondering what just happened and how it could have ended that way, but thankful that it's finally over.
This movie was entirely over-rated, and is the perfect example of people thinking it's good simply because they've been told by others that it's a work of art and is good. Instead of behaving like mindless sheep, they should speak their own opinions rather than parrot the views of others and simply state: this movie was dismal. It was just plain bad. Many have said there is fine cinematography... if setting a camera up to shoot the wide Texas landscape is fine cinematography, then any idiot with a panoramic movie camera must be an incredible DP (Directory of Photography). The subject and location do NOT make fine cinematography. Lighting, focal length, aspect ratio, and filtering in addition to camera angle and movement are used to determine fine cinematography (and "mood") such as shown in The Godfather in the opening scene.