No Country for Old Men is an allegorical modern western that captures a country in transition, thus commenting on present day society and providing an almost nostalgic analysis of the nature of good and evil and the inescapable stranglehold of fate.

Sticking to most genre rules, only to pull out the rug from underneath you at the very end, No Country for Old Men together with There Will be Blood seem to best represent what the modern Western can be. They are almost polar opposites in how they approach what they try to say, but they're still sides of the same coin.

On a literal level the plot is very straightforward, carried by a host of intriguing characters and can…

we do not talk about the 2007/8 oscars enough. this was 13 years ago. there was a writers strike. barack hussein was on the cusp of election. this year had everything:

• daniel day-lewis
• baby saoirse ronan
• a win for ratatouille, the best pixar film

• tommy lee jones got a best actor nomination for a different movie
• surf’s up for animated feature (when it should have been in documentary short)
• jon stewart called one of the nominees “not good” like 5 minutes into his monologue

• falling slowly won best song. there was one other nominee and then the remaining three were all from enchanted (well deserved)
• a nomination for transformers
• two roger…

This is the first time I’ve re-watched the Coen classic since when it was first out in theatres. After re-watching The Man Who Wasn’t There with our neighbours a few weeks ago, I’ve been hankering to revisit what I consider their darkest film. Where the Coens other dark outings are lined with bone dry ironic humor, No Country for Old Men is all serious business.

The Coen trademark noir-esque elements of misbehaviour and consequences are here, but where nature and circumstance dictate the outcome in their other films, here, nature and circumstance is embodied in a character, Anton Chigurh. Javier Bardem is a force of nature wrapped up in a bad hairdo. The sheer weightiness he brings to Chigurh is…

The Coen Brothers created a monster far more hideous and vile than Frankenstien's monster!

If death had a name it would be Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem)! I haven't been this creeped out by a deranged killer since 1991's Silence of the lambs!

The Coen Brothers film didn't take my breath away it choked the life out of me with pure unadulterated good ole fashioned terror!

Josh Brolin as Llewelyn Moss was easy on the eyes! He was the easy going charismatic good ole boy whose 1 bad decision guaranteed him a dance with the devil! In my opinion this is his most powerful performance to date!

Tommy Lee Jones as Ed Tom Bell the soothing voice of reason and wisdom!…

No Website for Old Men

Where does a man my age go with his pop culture thoughts and observational musings?

I've been posting here for over 5 years and I still feel like the guy sitting at the bar watching the ballgame while the kids gyrate to 'W.A.P.'. I don't quite fit in, but I'm not sure someone in their 40's fits anywhere on the world wide web. I'm just a dad chaperoning a bunch of self-loathing brats to a Soccer Mommy show while I sit in my Dodge Caravan looking at porn and texting my buddy about Hard Target.

So what are my options?

Facebook? Never had it, never will. If we haven't talked in 20 years there's a…