True Grit (2010): review: 7/10

*

A headstrong girl, having recently lost her father to a thief, hires a marshal to bring him to justice. A second marshal joins them, forming a party spanning three generations They proceed into Indian country to pursue the villain.

Overlong, but with some interesting intergenerational conflicts. As so often, Jeff Bridges overplays his hand.

The Coen's seem to have an ability to make films which mesmerise, usually because of their beauty, but which fade from memory very soon after being watched. 

True Grit contains  considerable violence and cruelty: hangings, shootings, stabbings, a man has a finger cut off. These have a revoting sadistic quality.

The Ladykillers (2004): review- 0/10

The Coen's remake "The Ladykillers", moving it from London to the deep South, whose culture they attempt to satirise.

This could be interesting. It isn't: indeed, this film is a disgrace: the humour is inane, it's very poorly paced and it completely fails to create any dramatic tension. It should be struck from the Coen brother's catalogue.

Oh, and the acting is universally poor too- with a horrible, forced "zaniness" all round.