No Country For Old Men

I saw this on a recent trip to New York, and I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while (I saw a few other films there that’ll I try to note in the next week or so).
The Coen brothers are always worth watching, although recently their run of form has gone off the boil a little. Intolerable Cruelty wasn’t wonderful (and hasn’t been worth another viewing for me), while The Ladykillers remains their only film that I haven’t seen.
Well No Old Country For Old Men is a fantastic return to form. It’s based on a Cormac McCarthy novel that I’ve yet to read, and details what happens when Josh Brolin’s character stumbles across a drugs deal gone wrong. With men dead and dying everywhere, he simply walks away with the cash.
This leads off what effectively is a chase movie; but a chase with one of the nastiest and most vicious film villains you’ve seen for a long time. Javier Bardem’s character is someone who kills for fun. Literally.
Everytime he’s on the screen your heart is in your mouth wondering what he’s going to do, and who the innocent victim is likely to be.
Tommy Lee Jones is the local sheriff who gets an idea what’s going on but has his own issues to face.
The rest of the cast is good; I liked Woody Harrelson’s brief appearance as someone else searching for the missing money. He was cocksure of himself. And I realise that I’ve not seen Kelly McDonald in anything recently, although he she has a nice turn as Josh Brolin’s wife, who’s kept out of the loop.
I want to go and see this film again. It’s a great piece with a fascinating ending.