Posted by Carl, a resident of the Menlo Park: other neighborhood, on Jan 10, 2008 at 11:26 am

No Country for Old Men: awesome

Javier Bardem: awesome -- loved him in Before Night Falls, love him in this.

Posted by Joe, a resident of another community, on Jan 10, 2008 at 12:21 pm

I see "No Country for Old Men" as being in a category by itself. It's a deeply cynical commentary on a drug-infested border town in which the cops are tokens, life is cheap, depravity is just around the corner, and the good guys never win.

It's not a movie. The plot is so thin as to almost not be there. It's a day-in-the-life rant that has nothing redeeming to offer. The acting is great and you can't look away and it stays with you for weeks, like the stink that comes after a long physical ordeal in which there is no opportunity to bathe.

I left this "performance" and couldn't wait to go to a movie with a plot so as to wash "No Country" out of my mind. The Coen brothers have an affinity for depraved and mindless violence for the sake of being depraved and mindless.

It deserves to be ignored for the main Oscar categories. There are too many other good movies out there, including ones that showcase unreasonably violent behavior: "There will be Blood," "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," and "Michael Clayton," and "The Valley of Elah."

Joe