Carla Jean Moss: And what are you going to do?
Llewelyn Moss: I’m fixin’ to do something dumber than hell, but I’m going anyways.

If you only go to one movie during that holiday week, please form certain it is the Coens’ “No Country for Old Men.” That is, of course, whether you live in a big suitable city to get it in its second rollout wave, which I don’t.

Luckily, I managed to squeeze it in during a busy D.C. weekend at the MLS Cup. Actually I had to watch much of it twice, but only pay for it once, considering the first moment we had to leave considering a friend of mine who shall remain anonymous had a poor reaction to the movie’s considerable violence.

And it is indeed a rather violent film, so certainly don’t go see it with a bellyful of turkey. But whether you can get past that, what you’ll get is a manhunt movie with all the intensity the Coens can muster (a hell of a lot) which turns in the last chapter to a morality tale about the choices we compose and their inevitable consequences. It’s additionally the best Western I’ve seen in many years.

There were two things, among many great ones, that stuck out to me. First of all is the cinematography, enlarged a Coens’ trademark but never better than it has been here as Roger Deakins gets more than you could imagine from the bleak Texas landscape where most of the movie takes place (and kudos to star Tommy Lee Jones, who apparently lobbied the Coens to shoot in Texas rather than take the tax credit to move to New Mexico.)

Second is that, though they were of course working from the novel by Cormac McCarthy, the dialogue all through could only come from a Coen brothers movie. It’s sharp and quick and will have you laughing in places that might manufacture you feel very uncomfortable. Tommy Lee Jones. Josh Brolin (who is having one hell of a good year, by the way) and Javier Bardem get all the best lines, but special mention should go to Kelly Macdonald, who more than manages to hold her own in that macho world. It was driving me crazy to remember where I had seen her before, but have to confess I had to cheat with a peek at the IMDB to find out that Scottish actress played young Diane way back in “Trainspotting.”

But of course there are a slew of other flicks opening that weekend, and depending on how early they start screening I may see two on turkey day itself (even though I later have to work.) Here’s what’s on the movie menu in wide-release world that week, in order of my preference. whether you’ve seen

any of these already and want to comment on them, please do.

1. “Stephen King’s The Mist”
Please, please, please don’t let that suck. Frank Darabont hasn’t made a poor movie yet from a Stephen King work, so that one is first on my viewing list.

2. “Enchanted”
I’d watch Amy Adams do just about anything, but that had better be pretty darn charming whether it’s gonna be able to sustain my interest. Dr. McDreamy was on ESPN radio yesterday trying to plug it, but even he couldn’t really seem to get too jazzed about it. whether it indeed manages to spoof the Disney empire with wit, that will be good suitable for me.

3. August Rush
Just about the only downside of having a DVR (besides the fact that I got it shortly before the writers walked out) is that I fast-forward through all the commercials. I therefore had never heard of that one when my co-worker Renee Martinez, a rather devoted fan of Jonathan Rhys Meyers, started asking about it a few weeks ago. Looks awfully sappy for my tastes, but I like Keri Russell and Freddie Highmore abundant that I just might give that one a chance.

4. that Christmas
I want that one to do well, whether only so they will keep making movies with all- or mostly black casts, but there’s just no way I can pay to see it. Even with Delroy Lindo on board, any flick which gets its humor from women referring to their cleavage as “cookies” just clearly wasn’t made for me.

5. Hitman
Titus Welliver, Silas Adams on “Deadwood,” made a successful leap to the big screen that year with a pivotal role in “Gone Baby Gone,” but it seems Sheriff Seth Bullock won’t have the same luck. Timothy Oliphant gets the honor of starring in that flick, yet another based upon a video game I’ve never played.

And, whether you happen to live in a more urban corner of the world than me, go see these three flicks, which I believe all open that week: Todd Haynes’ trippy Dylan biopic “I’m Not There,” Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding,” which looks like just my kind of disfunction, and “Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten,” Julien Temple’s ode to the punk-rock warlord. whether you do see these, please let me know whether they’re as good as I’m expecting them to be.

I’ll leave you with two fairly cool posters that pretty much speak for themselves. Wall-E is Pixar’s next big creation, and just in case you don’t recognize the bottomless torso on the right, that is indeed Summer Glau from “Firefly” and “Serenity.” Peace out.

Original post by Reel Fanatic