Dan is a writer living in Shanghai, China.
January 14 08
I still have nightmares about Javier Bardem
We had grand plans about making many visits to the movie theater during our recent two-week trip to the US — it's one of the activities I miss most about life in the US; we never have much reason to go in censored Shanghai — but we only managed to see one film: No Country For Old Men. It was the only thing worth seeing at Bloomsburg's Cinema Center. (Trivia: I was one of the Cinema Center's very first employees, way back in 1993 — I tore a damn good ticket, I must say.)
No Country is excellent, one of the most engrossing, tense and uncomfortable movies I have ever seen ... until its flawed (and unnecessary) final act. Still, I highly recommend seeing it, if only for the set-up and the pitch-perfect performances from Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones and the rest of the splendid cast.
It's Bardem, however, who steals the show (he just won a Golden Globe). His cattle-gun-carrying, Dorrothy-Hamill-hair-having Anton Chigurh is creepy and calculating and without compassion — truly terrifying. I'd say he was a modern day Frank Booth, but No Country is set before Blue Velvet.
Haven't seen it available on DVD in Shanghai, but be sure to snatch up a copy when it appears.
Comments (2)
Yeah, I recently caught the show at the Youku Theatre, and yes, that dude was WAY scary. Glad he won something for it.
Posted on 01.16.08 at 06:42:04
I enjoyed the ending. It was exactly the same as the book's, so I don't see what the big deal was. It wasn't an action movie, the ending fit.
Posted on 01.16.08 at 09:43:24