Only the second time seeing this but this is a well done western-drama with amazing performances, most notably Javier Bardem and to a lesser extent, Josh Brolin. I don't think it's a great movie especially compared to a movie like Hell or High Water, but still highly entertaining. **3.75/5**

This is a spoiled brat Hollywood formula version of the classic film NIGHTFALL. It is so parallel to Nightfall that there is no doubt that McCarthy wrote it as a brattish rewrite of the classic film. By "brat" I mean it is contrived to appease the control freak nature of the immature and spoiled American. I doubt this will fare well in the future, and if anything, it will cause a renewed interest in Nightfall, with Aldo Ray and Brian Keith. Like Nightfall, we have an investigator who feels he is in over his head in a case of money stolen from hoodlums. Like Nightfall, the hero stumbles across stolen money and is also in over his head. Like Nightfall, there is a sadist who makes a game out of killing his victims. Like Nightfall, the sadist has an ally who is repulsed by the sadist, and is killed by the sadist. The only difference is that "No Country" presents the hoodlums as the "gods" that dorks worship so much. Also, in total plagiarism of Nightfall, the sadistic killer entices his victims to believe there is a contest, when in reality, the killer is going to decide the fate no matter what. In "No Country", it's the toss of a coin, but anyuone who knows sadists knows that it's a rigged contest. "No Country For Old Men" presents the sadist in the usual Hollywood formula of being immortal and godlike. In "Nightfall", the sadist is a mortal. "No Country" endeavors to contrive every bit of the story to show that if you're sadistic enough, you are immortal, the true Hollywood formula since about 1965. (Godfather and other gangster movies, Leone westerns, almost all horror movies e.g.). So, we have a total lack of risk taking in McCarthy writing the total "safe" Hollywood story, to join the innumerable other such Hollywood stories that fail to either inspire or instruct, meant only to make the Beavis and Butthead viewers guffaw with delight.

Javier Bardem is just great in this! He is "Anton", a ruthlessly efficient killer on the hunt for a missing bag of loot that has fallen into the hands of the opportunistic "Moss" (Josh Brolin) after a drug deal goes awry. The latter man soon cottons onto the fact that his life is now considerably more at risk and he has to figure just out how to survive long enough to escape and enjoy his cash. "Moss" might just have an unlikely and unwitting ally, though, in the form of the pursuing but rather unenthusiastic sheriff "Bell" (Tommy Lee Jones) but, well you just wouldn't want to bet against the truly menacing Bardem! It's violent and brutal, sure - but it's also darkly humorous with plenty of pithy banter and quite some degree of characterisation from both Brolin and Bardem as the denouement looms large. That conclusion is as unpredictable as the rest of this quirkily scary and entertaining crime drama that uses an oxygen cylinder with startlingly effective results in this game of lethal Russian Roulette. Nobody is safe, nobody is innocent - and it doesn't matter whose side you are, ostensibly, on either. It's perfectly paced by the Coen brothers, the characters and the story given ample opportunity to develop and to breathe and by the conclusion I was definitely rooting for someone! It has shades of the old wild-west Texan Western genre to it, it reeks of authenticity and is really well worth a watch.