2007 No Country For Old Men

2007 No Country For Old Men

Javier Bardem as Anton.

Gas Station Worker: I didn't put nothin' up.
Anton: Yes, you did.  You've been putting it up your whole life you just didn't know it.  You know what date is on this coin?...1958.  It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here.  And now it's here.  And it's either heads or tails.  And you have to say.  Call it.
Gas Station Worker: Look, I need to know what I stand to win.
Anton: Everything.

What an odd movie.

It has three main components.

One: Josh Brolin being quiet.  Going about his (rather stupid) business of (rather stupidly) taking drug money, without talking much at all.

Josh Brolin.

Two: Javier Bardem acting his ass off as an eerily cool and sadistic psychopath named Anton –pretty much rampaging and killing wherever he goes, flipping a coin to decide who will live and who will die.  His performance was excellent, but I mostly wanted him off the screen, because he was creepy and violent.

Tommy Lee Jones.

Three: Tommy Lee Jones musing to himself that “Well, this place has gone to hell…this sure ain’t no place for old men.  I sure ain’t really effective in any way in this movie 'tall, am I?”  My wording, but pretty darn close.

It wasn’t a completely terrible movie, but how these three components combine to equal a good movie, much less an Oscar winner, I know not.

Worst of all, some AMAZING movies came out in 2007!  Arranged, Stardust, Waitress, and Juno were all such terrific movies that I want to give them all Oscars.  What the heck, Academy?



I will be posting individual reviews of Arranged and Waitress, so stay tuned.