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25 / 07 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the eleventh race in Germany are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Hungary next weekend on 1st August.

11 / 07 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Bulgaria are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Finland on THURSDAY 29th July (a day earlier than usual!).

11 / 07 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the tenth race in Silverstone are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Hockenheim on 25th July.

27 / 06 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the ninth race in Valencia are in, including the penalties for the naughty boys driving too fast. Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Silverstone on 11th July.

13 / 06 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the eighth race in Canada are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Valencia on 27th June.

30 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Portugal are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Bulgaria on 9th July.

30 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the exciting seventh race in Turkey are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Canada on 13th June.

16 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The Monaco scores have been updated to reflect Michael Schumacher's ridiculous penalty for daring to overtake a Ferrari. Check the updated results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

16 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the sixth race in Monaco are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Turkey on 30th May.

10 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the fifth race in Barcelona are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Monaco on 16th May.

10 / 05 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally New Zealand are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is Portugal on 28th May.

19 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Turkey are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next rally is New Zealand on 7th May.

18 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the fourth race in China are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Barcelona on 9th May.

06 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The JWRC driver lineup has been released, so you can make your selection before teams are frozen for Turkey on the night of 15th April. If you don't pick anyone, you'll get Aaron Burkart by default.

05 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the third race in Malaysia are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is China on 18th April.

03 / 04 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Jordan are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Turkey on 14th April.

29 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the second race in Melbourne are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Malaysia THIS WEEKEND on 4th April.

14 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1: The results from the first race in Bahrain are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Australia on 28th March.

09 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy F1! Yes, there's a brand new Fantasy Formula One game! Check the rules or enter your team by Friday night to qualify for the first race in Bahrain!

08 / 03 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Mexico are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team. Next race is Jordan on 1st April.

17 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The points awarded for a win have changed in the real WRC, so we've reflected the changes in our scoring too. Check the rules to see the details. Next rally is Mexico on 5th March, teams will be frozen at midnight on the night of Thursday 4th March.

16 / 02 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The results from Rally Sweden are in! Check the results, see how your team did or enter a new team.

31 / 01 / 2010
Fantasy Rally: The new rally season is upon us - 2010 Fantasy Rally is now open! Check the rules or pick a team ready for the start on 12th Feb.

25 / 10 / 2009
Fantasy Rally: All previous years' Fantasy Rally results are online - Check the 2009 season.

02 / 08 / 2009
Reviews: Sorry, there won't be any more movie reviews for the foreseeable future. Events have overtaken me. Catch up on reviews you may have missed.

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

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