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This photo provided by Miramax Films shows Javier Bardem in a scene from "No Country For Old Men." (Richard Foreman, Miramax Films)

No Country for Old Men combines stellar story-telling and superb acting to create what is arguably the best film of the year. The Coen brothers produced the script (adapted from Cormac McCarthy’s novel) and directed the film. These directorial powerhouses create an unimaginable horror story of a psychopath on a tear, the outcome of his terror being so unpredictable one would believe No Country for Old Men was a reenactment of real-life events.

The story begins in Texas; the Coens fashion their setting as one full of moralistic simple folk, an area that doesn’t deserve the plight of Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem). This presumably Eastern European hitman comes into town to fix a drug deal that has gone horribly wrong, by retrieving a briefcase containing $2 million. But from the get-go that is not Anton Chigurh intention; this one man army has no villainous keeper (an over-used plot device in itself). Chigurh is one of the most original antagonists of the decade. Besides his bellbottoms and fishbowl haircut, there is nothing much that measures up to a human being. In the very first scene we get a close up of his bloodshot eyes and maniac expression as he kills one of his many victims with his favorite weapon, a cattle gun.

The movie centers around Chigurh and the chase for the money, the fortune which was stumbled upon (in a bittersweet moment) by Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin). Moss knows that the Mexican drug dealers will be after him, and seems to have a pretty good plan for evading them; too bad that’s not who he should be fearing. Picking up after Chigurh’s messes is Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), and waiting for Moss’s safe return is his wife Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald). The combination of Mexican drug dealers, the police, Mob drug interests, an insane hitman, and a simple Texan leads to an insurmountable amount of death; foreshadowing what we might believe to be the ultimate showdown.

Think you know how this David vs. Goliath is going to end? Whatever you’re thinking is surely wrong. This movie is unpredictable, which makes it all the more entertaining to watch. The graphic violence, amoral/no-nonsense plot, and random chance events, make this surreal story one of the most realistic. If you can stand the violence and the suspense, No Country for Old Men is a truly unique experience.