"A Simple Plan" for Philosophy Majors....................

Rating: 5/10 (28 October 2010)

Well,everyone loves the Coen brothers - right?But they can be a bit up their own viewfinders and in "No country for old men" they have created a smug intellectualised Peckinpah "hommage" with none of the old geezer's sly humour and bruised humanity. Mr Tommy Lee Jones looking more and more like one of those expensive Japanese dogs portrays a completely unbelievable cracker-barrel philosophising sheriff who is clearly in the wrong job.He is overwhelmed by the crimes he is supposed to be investigating and lacks the energy or inclination to inspire his equally timid deputies. Set in the 1970s,there are no computers,no inter - agency co-operation,no grasp of the bigger picture,just a bored sheriff on the verge of retirement looking for a quiet life. When a homicidal maniac crosses his path he regresses to the days when it was safe to leave your covered waggon unlocked at night. There is nothing new in "No country for old men",it's just the Coen brothers being clever - clever with the old "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" plot that Sam Raimi did so much better in "A Simple Plan". If you like to sit with furrowed brow considering the serious sub - text in "Mr Magoo" you'll have a ball with this.