No Country For Old Men (2007)

dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen. Based on the Cormac McCarthy novel and set in 1980’s Texas. Good old boy (Josh Brolin) finds a briefcase full of cash at the scene of a drug deal gone wrong, and goes on the run, pursued by a psychopathic hitman Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem. Gorgeous looking western noir story, with some incredible Hitchcock style sequences of suspense. Javier Bardem is legitimately scary, and his violence is often brutal and gory. Tommy Lee Jones as Sheriff Bell is charismatic as always, but this time re-watching I found his old man stories tedious. It’s still very watchable, and full of wonderful performances, but not nearly of the same quality as other Coen crime films, such as MILLER’S CROSSING (1990) or FARGO (1996).