The Coen Brothers strike again to give us a movie with suspense, action, crime, and one of the creepiest villains in years, decades even. No Country for Old Men is the Coen Brother’s shot to mainstream stardom as well as critical and box office acclaim. The film stars Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, and Javier Bardem in a tale of murder, revenge, and escape.

The movie starts off with Tommy Lee Jones setting the scene, he is the Sherriff of a small town in Texas and it introduces us to Javier Bardem’s character when he murders the officer that arrested him and escapes in the car. Josh Brolin’s character at that point is out in the desert when he stumbles upon a drug deal gone bad in which he finds several dead bodies. He trails off from there and ends up finding two million dollars and he takes it back to his home. Bardem is looking for the money and Brolin knows that he is being followed so he leaves town. The entire film plays out like a chase movie with Brolin’s character running from Bardem’s, up until the last twenty minutes.

The acting is great here with both Brolin and Jones giving respectable performances but it is Javier Bardem who makes this movie exceptional. He gives such a chilling performance that you can’t help but shudder whenever you see him on screen.  He is the Joker of No Country for Old Men, both great performances, both great villains, and both unforgettable characters. Every line that comes out of Bardem’s mouth has such a terrifying quality to it that you can’t help but feel scared for what he’s going to do next. His performance was so incredible that he won the Best Supporting Actor for the role, although I don’t see why he was placed in the supporting category as it is Bardem who carries this movie.

Although this is a terrifying crime slash chase movie, the Coens manage to inject some of their signature dark humor into the film and I wound up laughing a lot more than I thought I would.  Even Bardem made me laugh at times which made me marvel at Bardem’s skill. The Coens certainly have their own unique style and I see them as some of the most talented directors in Hollywood right now.  Their movies are incredible, and if adapted from a novel (as No Country was) they are always true to their source material. No Country For Old Men deserved the Best Picture Oscar that it got and I give it a 5/5, If you haven’t seen it , go and rent it, move it to number one on your Netflix queue, buy it, I don’t care, you just have to see this movie.

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