No Country for Old Awesome

I went and saw the Cohen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" tonight. It was seriously awesome. I happen to be in Portland right now and since I've never been to an art house theater that wasn't located at 300 S. and 300 E. in Salt Lake, I thought it'd be cool to visit one here.

Although I had an enjoyable time, I must admit, I noticed several differences in movie watching etiquette between the two states.

The theater wasn't that large, but it was almost full. I would guess that another hundred people decided to attend the same viewing that my cousin and I attended. During the time between the end of the previews and the beginning of the ending credits, I was able to hear 7 different ring tones from seven individuals.

This isn't that big of a deal, it's just a big change from the things I'm used to back in the beehive state. To these Oregonians' credit, not one of them answered the call to say, 'Dude, I'm in a movie, what do you need?'

There was a couple sitting directly behind me and my cousin. The violence in this awesome movie came as quite a shock to these two, despite the MPAA's clear warning that the movie is rated R for 'strong graphic violence.' Several murders are witnessed in the first few minutes of the movie and each time a shot was fired or blood splattered, the girl behind us would cry loudly, 'No, baby, NO!' And her man-friend would hiss, 'What the f@#% is this s$%t?' Two animal killings, 3 counts of manslaughters and 10 corpses later, the man-friend had had enough and they got up to leave.

All movie-going observances aside, 'No Country for Old Men' is darker, weirder and funnier than 'Fargo.' Go see this movie. It's definitely a career high for the Cohen brothers. Well done Joel. Well done Ethan.