Short Review: Nightwatch.

Premise: A law student takes a job as a night guard at a morgue, and he starts to notice odd things happening. Meanwhile, a serial killer continues his streak of murder.

Starring: Ewan McGregor, Nick Nolte, Josh Brolin, Patricia Arquette, Lauren Graham, and John C. Reilly.

My Reaction: How can a movie with such a cast be so… bland? The first half is pretty good with some decent suspense/spookiness, but if you’ve had any experience with any thriller ever, you know that the person being set up as the killer is so freaking obvious it can’t be him, which takes away all the mystery (because you then know who it has to be). And because of that, along with the second half of the movie, everything turns into a venture into the non-logical and plot holes. I would rate it pretty average, and I can’t understand how it has such an above-average score on imdb. And I only rate it as high as I do because of some pretty entertaining scenes early on, some particularly creepy moments, and some good acting from Josh Brolin in particular.

Stop Saying Okay! Okay.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

You know the drill: Oscar Movie + Small Town = Me Going ASAP. This time it was No Country for Old Men. This movie is about Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) who, while out hunting one day, stumbles upon a drug deal gone badly, as well as a couple million dollars in a suitcase. He does everything he can do to keep the money, but he’s being pursued by a crazy killer, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), who is leaving bodies in his trail. However, local police officer Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is also trying to find him, but to protect him.

For the most part, this movie was excellent. The acting was great, the story was good, and it was overall intriguing. There was very little music, but that was okay. The acting was good on all accounts, although Javier Bardem was very intimidating all on his own (he even made me nervous). And Anton’s air gun thing was an awesome weapon.

There’s only one real downer, and that’s the last 15-20 minutes or so of the movie, whenever the motel thing occurs and everything after that. It’s just like “that’s it? That’s how it ends? That’s lame.” It reminded me of Sunshine, except less confusing; it was just really disappointing. I guess you could call it anti-climactic, in more ways than one. And I'm pretty sure I understand what happened. I think I was able to put everything together (if you want my theory, hit me up in the comments). I still think the ending sucked.

Honestly, that’s about all I have to say about it. Great acting, great characters (and I almost laughed when Woody Harrelson appeared, because I totally wasn’t expecting it), and a decent story. It did remind me a bit of Fargo, but much better. Fargo annoyed the crap out of me. I couldn’t stand that movie when I watched it (I know, blasphemy). Anywho, I guess I’ll just score it, then…

A Keanu 'Whoa'

(Edit: After going back and reading Fletch from Blog Cabins' review of the movie, I have to say it's quite funny that our reviews are actually insanely similar, even down to mentioning Sunshine.)