Merged: The Movies Thread

[skinsfanthru&thru]

Originally Posted by itvnetop

You're not alone... in fact most people were put off by the ending. But it's technically a near flawless film... it's going to be used over and over in film classes to dissect elements like cinematography, pacing and writing.

* Spoilers *

The movie works because it accomplishes the vision of the original book. NCFOM is a thematic movie, moreso than character-driven. The Coens have a knack for straying from traditional film structure- you didn't really have a "good guy protagonist" to root for, per se... there was Brolin's character, who played an average Joe- the audience wants him to get away with the money, but he still pulls off an unethical action (stealing money that's not his). Bardem's psycho character is definitely not the guy to root for, but he displays his own abstract sense of morality. And Tommy Lee Jones was the dude that verbalizes McCarthy's (the original book's author) overarching message- the world is becoming evil and good can no longer stop it... only fate can hope to stumble it...

Leaving out the death scenese for major characters is intentional to the overall theme. You're left wondering "wtf" during certain aftermath shots (and the ending) b/c the storytelling is so un-Hollywood. The movie's not wrapped up in a bowtie at the end and that surely pissed a bunch of people off.

/film geekness

I'm totally fine with the good guy not coming out on top ie Arlington Road cuz most of the time that actually sadly reflects real life. But with NCFOM, the ending just left me feeling no emotion what so ever. No "WTF" or a "hell yeah", just a "is that the end?" kind of thing. Pacing was decent and I wasn't blown away by the cinematography, but like I said the lack of any real substantial story or even character development just left me feeling like I had wasted the last almost 2 hours. I guess I just had different expectations tied to a movie of such high acclaim and felt like I had seen a completely different movie than everyone else.

oh and anyone looking for a good popcorn action flick, Doomsday was a kewl nod to classics like Road Warrior and Escape From New York.