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05 / 11 / 2008
Review: After the gruelling James Bond press junket tour, I bet Daniel Craig could use a Quantum of Solace.

02 / 11 / 2008
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Japan are in - just one rally to go and still the lead keeps changing! See how your team fared or see the Japanese rally results. Any of the top ten could still claim overall honours!

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Brad Pitt steals the latest from the Coen brothers: Burn After Reading.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Simon Pegg learns How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

23 / 10 / 2008
Review: Ben Stiller directs stars aplenty in Tropic Thunder.

12 / 10 / 2008
Review: A few words on some recent movies: RocknRolla,
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Hellboy 2: The Golden Army,
Space Chimps,
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The Babysitters,
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder,
Son of Rambow,
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Made of Honor,
Meet Dave,
Doomsday,
Pathology.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review: You can mess with Adam Sandler, but You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

15 / 08 / 2008
Review: Mike Myers tickles some chakras in The Love Guru.

14 / 08 / 2008
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14 / 08 / 2008
Review: You can stop watching the skies now, it's The X Files: I Want to Believe.

31 / 07 / 2008
Review: Batman Began and now continues in The Dark Knight.

24 / 07 / 2008
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23 / 07 / 2008
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22 / 07 / 2008
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09 / 07 / 2008
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09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Will Smith keeps the streets safe and smelling of booze in Hancock.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: M Night Shyamalan's latest, The Happening.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: Spanish creepy-creepy The Orphanage.

09 / 07 / 2008
Review: A quick catchup of movies that don't get the full treatment:
Be Kind Rewind,
Street Kings,
What Happens In Vegas,
Superhero Movie,
The Ruins and
Teeth.

08 / 07 / 2008
Review: Bend that bullet Angelina! Wanted.

01 / 07 / 2008
Review: Those cats were fast as lightning - Kung Fu Panda.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review: Don't make Ed Norton angry - The Incredible Hulk.

24 / 06 / 2008
Review: Carrie and Big's wedding, it can only be Sex and the City.

11 / 06 / 2008
Review: Everyone's favourite pot-addicts are back in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review: Harrison Ford returns in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

04 / 06 / 2008
Review: Tube driver seeks suicidal man in Three and Out.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review: CGI fantasy motor racing in Speed Racer.

18 / 05 / 2008
Review: Your creases will fly away with Iron Man.

18 / 08 / 2005
Sudoku! Have a go at the online Sudoku game.

Plenty more
See the rest of the reviews here.

No Country For Old Men

Cast: Josh Brolin, Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Kelly Macdonald, Woody Harrelson. Written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, adapted from the book by Cormac McCarthy. Story: Man finds stash of money, gets chased. Running Time: 2hrs 2 minutes. UK Certificate 15.

Here we go, the first of 2008's Best Picture Oscar contenders. No Country For Old Men is a well-crafted movie, but I can't say it's for everyone.

You know the Coens, right? They wrote and directed Fargo, The Big Lebowski and, most recently, The Ladykillers and have a reputation for quirky quality. With No Country For Old Men, their reputation is upheld, but it sure is confusing at times. It's the kind of movie that deliberately obscures details and makes you figure them out for yourself - great when it works, bewildering when it doesn't. If you sit and think about it while the movie's playing, you'll miss critical details, so it's best just to accept it when there's reference to a missing floor in an office that has absolutely no significance. There's a lot of that kind of stuff.

Story-wise, No Country is pretty straightforward - Josh Brolin, cannier than he looks, finds a stash of money among some dead Mexicans and does a runner with it. Javier Bardem, a kind of human Terminator, comes after him - and that's it, really. The joy is in the little scenes, the passing exchanges between characters and the minimalist acting that we've seen before in the Coens' extras. As far as performances go, No Country is a doozy. Javier Bardem is a shoe-in for Best Supporting Actor and Tommy Lee Jones is particularly watchable - though curiously he was nominated for In the Valley of Elah instead of this. Personally I had some trouble with the very strong southern accents - whole sentences went in one ear and out the other without the burden of comprehension - but the way the movie's shot and acted, it's a pleasure to watch even if you've no idea what's going on.

I'm having trouble predicting the Best Picture winner this year, but No Country For Old Men has to be one of the front runners. It's slow and deliberate and so is not for the impatient, but if you like your movies dark and dense, and don't mind a bundle of unexplained plot details, you'll get a lot out of it.

I enjoyed this film: 4/5

I think the average moviegoer will enjoy it: 5/5

Testosterone Satisfaction Rating: 0/5

To enjoy this film you should be: into awardy movies.

Your comments

The comments printed here are not necessarily the views of Forwardcharm!

In today's world of instant gratification, movies take price of place. Few directors are prepared to take the gamble that their audience will "go with the flow" and allow them to take liberties. For instance, are we conditioned to ignore the screen until the opening music has finished? If so, you'd have missed this movie - there's no music of that type at all!

The danger of this movie is that the good reviews may entice people to view it who don't understand the Coen brothers. I read a comment from someone recently on this movie who felt that it broke all the rules of movie making (!!!???) and needed a "re-write"...and all because they found the narrative confusing. Needless to say, I won't be recommending that they view Memento or Broken Flowers...

For those of course who "understand" the Coen Brothers, this is a delight. Mind you, with the scenery available to them, how difficult could it be to prouce good cinematography... but the lighting, effects and sheer menace that they create is superb.

You'll never find a "baddie" as "bad" as Bardem and I loved Woody Harrelson's well acted small role too. Josh Brolin performs well too - a chip off the old block to be sure, but probably a better actor than his old man!
Mark Piper