No Country For Old Men

broderic on December 6, 2007

Up until this weekend, I have only seen two Coen brothers films in the theatre, Fargo and The Ladykillers. Now make it a third. No Country For Old Men has been getting tons of praise by critics. It was in the running for the Palme d’Or at Cannes. The buzz coming from there this summer was that this is a return to Coens as master filmmakers after their less than appreciated The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty, their last two films.

Based off a Cormac McCarthy novel, No Country For Old Men, is a chase film. Josh Brolin is the hunted, a hunter who stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad and stumbles upon a nice tidy sum of cash. Javier Bardem is after Brolin. Like the Terminator or Jason, nothing stops him from finishing a task he’s started unless that something is a toss of coin an idea of his that fate governs us all. Tommy Lee Johns is after the both of them to recover the loot, to stop the monster, and to save the unworthy.

As with most Coen films, it’ll take me a while to figure out if I appreciated the film. I don’t think I got the gist of the film in this one sitting. Except for Blood Simple and Hudsucker Proxy, my favorites, I watched the Coen films and marvel at their droll artistry. I get that. Yet, they always leave me thinking, “there’s something more there.” After seeing this, I felt like I had watched Fargo again, and it was all a big, “Hunh?!”

There is evil in the world. You can’t stop it. It is fate that will bring it to you. These times are not for those who still have the old notions of good and bad. You may adjust, but do you want to.

3 of 5 stars.

Recent Keyword Activity

broderic on December 5, 2007

My Google hits just keep coming. In fact, BrowserMetrics is starting to get decent traffic from there. Lots of interesting search results. Here’s the most recent:

western fries — Are they looking for examples? Just stop by your local Royal Farms. Unless they don’t have ’em.
imdb general macarthur pt boats — They must be searching for “They were expendable.”
scopenet.com — “Internet? Inter-not.” NewsRadio nerds.
oksana akinshina naked — Sorry, I don’t have any of these. Were you successful? Please post in comments!
gdansk hot girls pictures — Can your machine handle google saudi arabia?
doobie keebler — Are you doobie keebler? NewsRadio nerds!
the withered arm blurb — What the heck is this? Please post in comments!
phillip hitchcock’s stacey keibler’s legs and ass — Those words don’t make any sense together. Again, post in comments.
browsermetrics — One of you three is lazy. Post in comments about why.
throwdini — NewsRadio nerds!!! LOL!

That’s a lot of nonsense.

Gastronome Abound

broderic on December 3, 2007

Over the weekend, we celebrated a cousin's birthday by eating and drinking at the Brazilian churrascaria, Fogo de chao, in lovely downtown Baltimore. I'm not usually the one to offer a restaurant review. So I won't, and I'll leave it up to CapitolSwell or even OnoCoffee to jump in with their takes. All I can say is that's a lot of meat. Seated next to these gastronomes the talk drifted of going to Spain and starting a little café. They thought Barcelona. I thought otherwise. The city on the tip of my tongue which I couldn't get out that night was San Sebastian. I think of that place more and more because of the surf and the wild Atlantic that it abuts. Not to put down Catalan whose hot and sexy Mediterranean feel would be welcome any day this cold winter, but I think adventure would wait in the Northern climes of Spain. Anyhoo, I read this piece in Slate today about astonishing number of fine restaurants in the city of San Sebastian. Seems to me to be the place to be. For food. And the surf!http://www.slate.com/id/2178875/entry/2178877/

Spam

broderic on December 3, 2007

You’ll click through because she’s cute.

Adventures From My Netflix Queue: Intermezzo

broderic on November 26, 2007

In 1939, the producer, David O. Selznick released a quaint little melodrama,Intermezzo. It’s not a well known movie, but only has a small value as being the film to introduce Ingrid Bergman to Hollywood.

Intermezzo was at first a film from Sweden. David O. Selznick saw it, bought the rights to have it remade in America, and signed its star, Ingrid Bergman, to a contract. She would play the young ingenue pianist who captures the heart of the violin virtuoso, Hulger Brandt, and breaks up his marriage. They gallivant around Europe as a duo both on the stage and in the hearts. Yet, she has regrets. Regrets about how she is the other woman. Regrets about separating Hulger from his family especially his young daughter. Regrets about putting on hold her piano studies.

She leaves him and he returns to his family. Complications ensue as he does eventually reconcile with his estranged son, wife and daughter. It’s a happy ending or at least less bitter than he deserves.

As I said, it was a swedish film at first. Watching it you can’t but help feeling the foreignness of the film. It’s pacing seemed all wrong for Hollywood. And even more un-Hollywood is its plot. “Man leaves wife and kids for a young hottie” just doesn’t seem to have been a regular plot of a 1939 film. Especially, that it is played as drama. I can imagine this being a film noir, but not in the bright days of 1939 Hollywood.

But Ingrid Bergman is so radiant in it. Very young looking. Only 23 at the time. She was still a little unsure of her English accent, but she manages to make her english charming. Oh, how beautiful she is in this film. Here’s a screen capture from her entrance. This is what early stardom looked like.

3 of 5 stars.

Battlestar Galactica: Razor

broderic on November 26, 2007

Awesome! Can’t wait until March for it to return? Or if ever because of the writer’s strike.

What was the most interesting revelation?

I thought it was the return of the original Cylon centurions and the raiders. Did they ever show them before?

Blad Runner Final Cut

broderic on November 17, 2007

Blade Runner has many different prints out there one for tv, the original theatrical release, the 1991 so-called “director’s cut,” and now the 2007 so-called “director’s cut” or Final Cut.

Caught this at the new Landmark theatres in downtown Bmore. It’s a digital theatre chain specializing in digital projection. It’s just like your projection style home theatre system but with a 60 ft screen.

Blade Runner is a classic. What more can be said? It’s slow pace drives you loopy, but that’s what’s cool about it. Considering all the movies that descended from this one, it’s amazing how slow the pace is. No frenetic here.

4 of 5 stars.