The Coen Brothers here return to gory BLOOD SIMPLE and comedic RAISING ARIZONA territory in an odd piece of Americana based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. The Brothers imprint is clearly stamped all over NO COUNTRY. The film begins when Llewlyn Moss (James Brolin) finds drugs and cash in a pick up truck with a dozen dead men. When Moss steals the money, a mysterious stranger known to those familiar to him as pure evil, Anton (Julio Bardem) chases in pursuit, leaving a bloody trail of killings. Bad haircut is the devil! Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) intervenes. NO COUNTRY is odd, hilarious, edgy, thrilling though sometimes confusing.

The hype is over.  BEE MOVIE opens with the biggest buzz of all animated films this year.  Written, voiced and widely promoted by Jerry Seinfeld, BEE MOVIE is not that bad a feature.  Give and take all the bee jokes, the film has a neat message tucked away with an adventure and lesson to be learnt by the protagonist, Barry B. Benson. 

Though titled THIS IS ENGLAND, the film’s action takes place in a part of England unfamiliar to tourists.  Set in the Midlands, the area where Brit filmmaker Shane Meadows grew up, this is the England that Meadows knows best.  Expectedly, his film, based on his childhood experiences packs quite the bite.

DARFUR is a western region of Sudan that until lately has been largely unheard of.  Films like DARFUR NOW have brought the genocide occurring there to be recognized by the U.S. and the world.

JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS sounds like a ballad.  Indeed, there is such a song, called Ballad of Jimmy Carter written and performed by Dan Bern at the end of the film.  By that time, director Jonathan Demme (SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, HEART OF GOLD) has demonstrated that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter known to many as the peanut farmer President is a legend in his own right.