Dvds Out Tomorrow

Jun 1 2008 Mickey Mcmonagle

Mail Music Reviews

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (15) ****

This stark, fascinating film is a devastating return to form for the Coen brothers.It's a literal and extremely effective adaptation of the hugely popular contemporary Western novel by Cormac McCarthy.

Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is a down-on-his-luck Vietnam vet who stumbles across the aftermath of a shoot-out while hunting.

Among the bloody, bullet-riddled bodies is a case containing Û2million.He takes it, tells his wife - a brilliant Kelly Macdonald - he has to leave and sets off to evade the inevitable pursuer, Tommy Lee Jones' tired old lawman and WWII vet Sheriff Bell.

Moss is also hunted by the much more terrifying Chihurgh (Javier Bardem), an emotionless hitman who decides the fate of his victims with the toss of a coin.

Incredibly tense and compelling, this is a film you will watch again and again. The drawn-out pace may put action fans off but it is well worth sticking with for the satisfying conclusion. Worthy of the acclaim it has reaped.

NATIONAL TREASURE (15) *

There is no need for an identikit Indiana Jones, especially when the original has just made his long-awaited return to the big screen. This film's pale imitation is Ben Gates, played by Nicolas Cage, who sets out to prove his ancestor did not help bump off Abraham Lincoln and was in fact a civil war hero.

To do this he has to find the missing pages from the diary of assassin John Wilkes Booth - one of which implicated his relative in the first place.

With rival Jeb Wilkinson (Ed Harris) doing his worst to hinder him and blacken the family name, Gates finds himself in increasingly ludicrous situations on his quest - kidnapping presidents and rifling through the queen's desks among them.

Definitely a very, very poor and extremely distant relative to the Indy movies - and Cage will never be suited to this sort of film or role. Please, no more.

Mickey McMonagle