No Country for Old Men

If you wonder what the Oscar-winning "No Country for Old Men" is about, think about the title. At the core of the film — Joel and Ethan Coen's adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel — is a cold sociopath, a figure of violence, but so matter-of-fact and undisturbed that life and death can depend on the flip of a coin, which it sometimes does.

Tightly edited and impeccably shot, "No Country" plays out as a three-man showdown with no two of them in the same frame. Oscar winner Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh is a hitman dispatched to retrieve the money from a drug deal gone bad in West Texas in 1980. Josh Brolin's Llewelyn Moss is a welder who lives in a trailer with his wife, Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald) and stumbles on the money. A little bit bad boy and a little bit good ol' boy, Llewelyn seems to flip his own mental coin and decides to try to get away with the $2 million. But he has enough of a conscience that he makes a mistake, and Chigurh — with his now-famous bad haircut — finds Llewelyn's trail, leaving a string of victims in his wake as he pursues him.

Trailing them both is Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a third-generation sheriff not far from retirement and growing more weary every day by the senseless violence in a country he can't recognize anymore.

A lot of the film plays like a moody, dangerous cat-and-mouse game — even in the wide-open desolate Texas landscape — punctuated by moments of explosive violence and twisted humor. In the end, "No Country" is a masterfully done but unsettling vision.

Dan in Real Life

Peter Hedges' "Dan in Real Life" makes do with the small things — and that's more than enough. Steve Carrell is Dan, a widower still inwardly grieving who takes his three daughters to a family gathering at his parents' home in Rhode Island. He makes his living as an advice columnist for parents, but none of his children really think there's much wisdom in what he says.

After being relegated to staying in the laundrythe room with the washer and dryerbecause he's the only one in the family who's not a kid or has a significant other, Dan is sent on an errand, where he meets a woman, Marie (Juliette Binoche), in the bookstore and feels an instant connection.

Turns out Marie is the new girlfriend of Dan's brother, Mitch (Dane Cook) — which Dan finds out when she turns up at his parents' house. There's your comic situation. Had Hedges pushed it, it would have been unbearably obvious. But the director, who turned another family-gathering story in his first film, "Pieces of April," into something unexpectedly alive, works similar magic in "Dan."

Having a cast that doesn't overplay its hand helps. Carrell nicely balances sadness and the right touch of daffiness. Binoche is sexy. Emily Blunt as another romantic possibility is a bit loopy and sexy. Cook comes off well and the comic may want to think about more roles like this. Throw in Norbert Leo Butz and Amy Ryan as Dan's brother and sister-in-law and John Mahoney and Dianne Wiest as Dan's parents and you can't go far wrong.

Just don't expect a lot of bellylaughs. The small ones will do just fine.

The Ark of Truth

Fans of "Stargate" should enjoy "The Ark of Truth." When the series "SG-1" was canceled, it was decided to continue making movies that went straight to DVD and eventually to Sci Fi Channel, where it once resided (and still does in repeats).

That means the gang — Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), Vala Mal Doran (Claudia Black), Cameron Mitchell (Ben Browder), Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and Teal'ccq (Christopher Judge) — are back to take care of some unfinished business with the human race's archenemy, the Ori.

For those of you not up to speed on all of "SG-1's" intricate plotting, which sometimes makes it a bit ponderous, there is about a 10-minute prologue you can watch. "Ark," however, plays better than a regular episode. Though it's a bit slow in the beginning as it sets up the situation, writer and director Robert C. Cooper eventually gets the action rolling in a satisfactory way (at least for fans).

"Tin Man," a Sci Fi Channel miniseries, is a retelling of "The Wizard of Oz." This version has a grown-up D.G. (as in Dorothy Gale, played by Zooey Deschanel, who seems to be wondering what she's doing in the production), a waitress and student who is swept off to the Outer Zone (or the O.Z., for short). There she comes under the eye of an evil sorceress (Kathleen Robertson), who has an interesting special-effects gimmick — flying bat-like monkeys to do her bidding. Whenever she needs them, they spring to life from, of all places, her cleavage. (That's something to keep some of us watching.)

As you'd expect, other equivalents from the original story show up in twisted forms. While "Tin Man" has a few moments, the production never has the brains or courage to be a truly audacious take on L. Frank Baum's "Oz," and in the end seems a halfhearted effort.

Also out this week

"August Rush" is a saccharine tale of a musically gifted child of the titleplayed by Freddie Highmore, who was given up for adoption at birth in a cruel trick. His parents — Louis Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), an Irish rock singer, and Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell), a classical cellist — think he is dead whobut in their hearts keep searching forhim alive. When the boy runs away from a group home, in an (Oliver) twist he is taken in, "Oliver Twist"-style, by a group of beggars led by the Wizard (Robin Williams), who discovers his genius and wants to make money off him. If all this seems ludicrous, then the rest of the movie isn't for you.

DreamWorks again refuses to send out advance copies of its animated works; so those of us who didn't see Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie" are in the dark. Maybe just as well.

And "Nancy Drew," starring Julia's niece Emma Roberts, gets an updated makeover.

Speaking of makeovers, Kenneth Branagh's redid the Joseph L. Mankiewicz 1972 film "Sleuth" to notless-than-good results. I remember enjoying the first film, which was based on the 1970 Anthony Shaffer play and had Michael Caine as Milo, a younger man having an affair with the wife of an older novelist (Lawrence Olivier). The new version, written by Harold Pinter, has Caine as the novelist and Jude Law as the young cad. While the original was hardly brilliant, it had its moments as the two man faced off, playing their tricks on each other in the novelist's house. Maybe it's those new surveillance cameras, but Branagh's "Sleuth" lacks intrigue. Or maybe it's just taken on the nastiness of the times.

And speaking of nasty and stupid, there's "Hitman," based on the video game of the same title. It stars Timothy Olyphant ("Deadwood") as a contract killer with a bar code on the back of his shaved head. As ludicrous as the action is — the usual gratuitous violence and nudity — and as one-dimensional as his character is, Olyphant has an interesting presence in the film. Think of it as a character flaw (mine).

out tuesday

NEW FILMS

"No Country for Old Men" ($29.99 and $34.99 for Blu-ray)

"Dan in Real Life" ($29.99 and $34.99 for Blu-ray)

"August Rush" ($28.98 and $35.99 for Blu-ray)

"Bee Movie" ($29.98 and $36.98 for two-disc set)

"Nancy Drew" ($28.98)

"Hitman" ($29.99 and $34.98 for two-disc set, $39.98 for Blu-ray)

"Sleuth" ($26.96 and $38.95 for Blu-ray)

"Outlaw" ($26.98)

TELEVISION

"Stargate — The Ark of Truth" ($26.98)

"Tin Man" ($24.95)

"Five Days" ($29.98)

"South Park — Imaginationland" ($19.99)

"Lil' Bush — Resident of United States — Season One" ($19.99)

"The Mod Squad — Season 1, Vol. 2" ($39.98)

"Love American Style — Season 1, Vol. 2" ($35.98)

NEW TO BLU-RAY

"Independence Day" ($39.98)

"Gattaca" ($28.95)

"I, Robot" ($39.98)

"Dogma" ($28.95)

OLDER FILMS

"Dangerous Crossing" ($14.98)

"Daisy Kenyon" ($14.98)

"Black Widow" ($14.98)

FOR KIDS

"The Wiggles: Pop Go the Wiggles" ($19.98)

OF SPECIAL INTEREST

"Michael Palin — New Europe" ($49.98)

"3-In-1 Total Body Fitness with Desi Bartlett" ($14.99)

Rob Lowman (818) 713-3687; robert.lowman@dailynews.com