Beautiful but Overrated.

Rating: 6/10 (4 March 2017)

From mixed reviews this movie either goes 1 star or 10 stars on different views from reviewers. It lands in the middle for me with a 6 because it wasn't anything special. The movie is well paced, beautiful landscape even if it is desert. And overall an actually pretty violent movie.
I have seen many Coen movies but never payed any mind to who they were until this movie. This "No Country For Old Men" was quite a build up movie. Having a lone hunter finding a drug exchange gone wrong and finding some hefty cash. Hits the jackpot he runs home and from there has a change of heart and goes back to give a dying man some water. From there, that was his mistake and is then hunted by the drug dealers wanting their money back. But worse, a psychotic assassin comes into play killing anyone who basically talks to him. The assassin of course is after the money, leaving the lone hunter to jump from place to place to make sure he isn't next on the psychotic assassin's hit list. Then comes into play the sheriff of the town who seems to give more stories and philosophies than really do anything else. So sets into motion the rest of the movie of cat and mouse from the lone hunter being chased by the assassin and drug dealers while the sheriff is picking up pieces. An intense battle of who comes out on top of catching the cash. Ends up beautifully made and thrilling. But stops at the ending were it goes from great to disappoint.
Spoilers Ahead!
I believe the Coen brothers did a wonderful job on the movie, I actually thank them from what I hear is that they kept much of the book into the film. But the ending comes as a very big disappointment to me seeing how it ends without any answers. One of the make it your own ending feels. The assassin who seems to feel no pain randomly gets in a car crash and just walks away. The lone hunter who we think is going to have an epic gun battle with the psychotic killer is seen one scene fine, next scene dead and found by the sheriff. From the drug dealers so we believe they snatched the money and bail out. From the books perspective the assassin gets the money and returns it to the original owner. In the movie we don't even know if he gets the money and we guess the drug dealers do. Another question leads us to think why and how did he know about the money. Book may answer it, but for the film he just kind of shows up. So we can't say who he works for, if by himself, or really anything about the assassin expect that he likes to kill and wants the money. Finally the sheriff tells a dream of his father and how he is just too old for the things going on and retires. Which is a dull way of ending a book/movie. I can't blame the Coen brothers but I was so twisted and turn by the end of this movie that I started to hate on it. I don't care if the overall villain escapes or wins but this was just a confusing ending. And by confusing I mean why they decided to end it the way they did. You can see where they were going with it but it fails to leave you satisfied.
For the acting, I say it was boring. I couldn't get into any character. Love Tommy Lee Jones but the storytelling sheriff he plays puts people to sleep. Josh Brolin did a good job on his part of acting, it was his character I hated. From the random choices he makes and seemly being a smart guy did really weird choices. A good guy who ended up paying for the choices he made. I just didn't care for it. And finally the psychotic killer assassin played by Javier Bardem. Now that was a masterpiece character and acting. He played such a creepy guy that I swear I was getting the willies every time he came on screen. The role was perfect for him. A standalone perfect 10 for this guy, Javier deserves the win for the Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role. I also do have to mention Woody Harrelson's character and say that was the worse cameo? Pointless to me, maybe it made more sense in the book but it was such a letdown to have him appear only to boringly talk.
Otherwise besides the ending, the movie itself is a very intense build up that seems like it would be a slow movie which actually gets you hooked. I was enjoying it, scenery, action, and all. I don't even remember the music/soundtrack for the film. I can see why people either like it or hate it. I'm in the middle ground and say if it wasn't for such a rushed filling ending I would have agreed to saying this movie is a must see. But with the violence, character growth, and lousy ending. I have to say skipped the movie and enjoy another movie.