Bad movie.

Rating: 1/10 (29 January 2008)

There are just too many ideas that were not properly explained or developed, and occurrences that don't make sense. My feeling is that the Coens and other writers/directors/producers/assistants just didn't care.
Spoilers occur hereafter.
Why was Chigurh arrested at the beginning?
The mechanics of the drug deal are not explained. Are we to assume one side decided to rip off the other or was a third party involved? In the former case, why does there seem to be evidence that the shooters came back (further damage to the pickup)? If the latter, why didn't they take the money?
Why ON EARTH did Moss go back with the water bottle? It was totally out of character. If he had not done so, the whole story would have been different. (The existence of the transmitter would still allow it to work, provided Moss was really stupid, and there's a lot of evidence for that.) From this point on, I had totally lost my belief in the movie. It seemed likely that other occurrences would also be dictated by plot needs, not by common sense.
How did Chigurh and co find out about the botched deal? The obvious answer is that they were in the pay of the unnamed crooked businessman and that the whole deal was a setup from beginning to end. But in that case we are back to a scenario where they would have been on hand to take the money before Moss showed up (whether the shootout involved a third party or not).
Okay, the transmitter. What kind of moron would keep the money in the bag it came in? Surely you would realize that people would be looking for it, and a different-looking piece of luggage would be a good idea. And you would find the transmitter when you unpacked the money.
So where was Moss going? Why did he run off? Why this hopping in and out of motels? And why leave his wife looking like a target? He and his wife should have left the country. And not to Mexico.
It wasn't that easy to get back and forth across the border to Mexico, even in 1980. (Of course, if it wasn't so easy, the plot wouldn't have worked.)
Coin tossing: this might have made sense if there were ANY other evidence that Chigurh's character had principles (no matter how insane), other than Wells' (Harrelson's character) one-liner. (And what was that character doing in the movie anyway? Pointless unless you give him more time.)
This is about 10% of the flaws.
All in all, a shoddy piece of film-making so that we can see lots of gore. Coupled with excellent directing and cinematography, so that the gullible will not notice the lack of substance.