Beyond awful

Rating: 1/10 (10 July 2008)

Occasionally a film comes along where you just have to say something about how completely rubbish it is. Up to a point, I can stand rubbish films, but when they are pretentious and Oscar winning (???!!!???) This film has so many plot holes and ridiculous coincidences, and what is particularly irritating is that the Coen brothers have deliberately set out to wind the audience up: 1) Find a transponder in the money case? Keep it with you of course instead of setting up an ambush. 2) Hang about on the Mexican border for hours waiting to be arrested with a case full of money. 3) Who were the Mexicans in the hotel room, and whose hotel room was it? I simply don't care and I can't be bothered to find out. 4) Ditto for the guy in the skyscraper and Woody from Cheers.
And how about film making skill? 1) Leave out pretty much all background music just so we can hear crunching gravel and tyre noise effects to add atmosphere. Big wow. 2) Have Anton move very very slowly into and out of frame, because that is obviously scary. 3) Leave out any sense of story arc, just make up a most unsatisfying ending, because at least the film is then memorable.
Completely childish and pointlessly violent. Any Rambo film is infinitely better than this codswallop.