Even when a movie looks unpromising, you can often find some ray of hope that gets you to the theater or eventually the DVD. In the case of Over Her Dead Body, I latched optimistically onto Paul Rudd. (Not literally. Unfortunately.) Rudd has that rare and magnetic combination of good looks and great comic delivery that worked so well for his supporting characters in Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Anchorman and other movies that didn't involve Judd Apatow ... not to mention a recurring role in the last season of Friends as Phoebe's boyfriend. (Ohh, to have to choose between Hank Azaria and Paul Rudd. Geek girls everywhere are sighing with me.)

You can imagine my disillusion when I realized that because Rudd is playing a guy who is deeply mourning his dead lover, someone decided he should look wan and tired. This devotion to reflecting his character's stress and debilitation is truly unnecessary -- it's a movie that includes ghosts and angels, so why would you invoke realism and give a romantic lead these dark circles under his eyes? Very sad, indeed.

Rudd plays the mournful Henry, a veterinarian whose self-centered, bitchy fiancee Kate (Eva Longoria Parker) is killed in a freak accident on their wedding day. Kate finds herself in Limbo and after insulting the angel who is supposed to help her, ends up as a ghost back on Earth with no idea what to do. She decides it must be her job to protect Henry from encroaching females. Meanwhile, a year after Kate's death, Henry's kooky sister Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) drags him to a psychic who hopefully can assure him that Kate is resting in peace, so he can move on with his life. The part-time psychic, Ashley (Lake Bell), is a flaky caterer who is willing to help Henry after Chloe insists ... and also because she's attracted to Henry. Kate doesn't like any of this hanky-panky, and Hilarity Ensues.

I have this theory that on the set of 1991's Father of the Bride, Steve Martin and Diane Keaton turned to each other and said, "You know what? From here on out, let's just keep doing this. Let's just play cute, cuddly versions of our formerly edgy and interesting selves -- slightly goofy mothers and fathers, that kind of thing -- and watch the cash roll in!" Then they high-fived and fell into an awkward, melancholy silence.

Through one unchallenging project after another, Keaton has served up the same old eye rolls, squeals, and stutters until you can't really tell one role from another. And what's really frustrating about watching her squander her talents is that -- as with Martin -- no matter how embarrassing the performance, you can't help but love her anyway. She's at her most unhinged in Mad Money, and painful as it is to watch at times, she does -- just barely -- manage to keep the film afloat.

No Country for Old Men, the new film from Joel and Ethan Coen, is an unquestionable return to form. It is scary, funny, moving, violent, and meaningful, in pretty much equal measure. The Coens' take on the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name is a pairing as successful, as seamless, as delicious as that of chocolate and peanut butter.

Josh Brolin gives the finest of his four excellent performances this year as Llewelyn Moss. Moss is a struggling everyman who stumbles upon a circle of trucks and dead Mexicans in the desert -- a heroin deal gone bad. Real bad. The lone survivor asks Moss for some agua, and Moss ignores the request. He surveys the scene and eventually comes upon a suitcase filled with $2 million dollars. Moss' response upon finding the money? A simple "Yeah." It's a perfect moment in a movie packed with them. Moss takes the money and returns home to his trailer and his wife Carla Jean (Kelly MacDonald). Soon, his conscience begins to nag at him, and he decides to head back to the scene of the crime to give the dying man a drink. A compassionate decision, but not, as you can probably imagine, an intelligent one.

Javier Bardem plays Anton Chigurh (start to say Chicago and then growl and you're close to the pronunciation). I'll leave his specific involvement in the proceedings up to you to figure out, but just know that he really wants that $2 million. Moss will come to refer to Chigurh as "the ultimate badass," and that's about right. Chigurh is a classic screen villain, the kind we haven't seen in far too long. Every time he appears on screen, cattle stunner in tow, it just makes your heart sink -- somebody is going down. Much like Hannibal Lecter, the guy is a vicious, remorseless killer, but he has a strangely sensible logic and one can't help but be seduced by him. Bardem, sporting a Prince Valiant haircut, gives a flawless performance here, one that will likely be noticed come Oscar time. He completely disappears into Chigurh.

Ropeofsilicon has six new shots from the Coen Brothers' upcoming crime drama No Country for Old Men. "Coen Brothers' upcoming crime drama" -- just typing those words fills me with excitement! The photos include: a shot of Javier Bardem sporting a Prince Valiant haircut and walking down the road with what appears to be insect repellent (?); the Coen Brothers on set; a mustachioed man that appears to be Josh Brolin walking toward a truck in the desert; a mustachioed man that is definitely Josh Brolin covered in blood and pointing a gun; Tommy Lee Jones looking disapprovingly at something while reading a newspaper; and a pretty shot of a man running at sunset. The film also stars Josh's father and Mr. Streisand -- James Brolin, Woody Harrelson, Kelly MacDonald, and Stephen Root from Office Space, Dodgeball, and one of the funniest sitcoms ever -- Newsradio.

The Coens are responsible for five of my favorite movies of all time, and they've been away from the cinema for far too long. Their last couple films weren't quite up to snuff, but this one promises to be pure gold. Based on Cormac McCarthy's critically acclaimed novel, which I plan to dive into this weekend, Old Men's plot concerns "dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande." Nobody does that kind of thing better than the Coens. The film is set for release on November 9th of this year, and the wait is just killing me. In the meantime, let me recommend a tiny movie to you that a lot of people missed: The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. With that catchy title, I'm not sure how it didn't find an audience, but it really should have. Written by Guillermo Ariaga, directed by and starring Tommy Lee Jones, it's an excellent film and one that, judging by the photos, appears to have a similar feel to Old Men.

The Hollywood Reporter is, well, reporting that the Coen Brothers have added some more meat to their contemporary Western thriller, No Country for Old Men. Just hearing the words 'Western' and 'Coen Brothers' in the same sentence gets me so juiced, Barry Bonds would be jealous. Ooohh, was that a sports reference on Cinematical? Arrest me now!

Woody Harrelson and Stephen Root have signed on to play roles in the pic, which is based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. Story will center around a gent (as Martha would say) who happens upon a bag full of money and drugs while out hunting antelope. Needless to say, the guy takes the bag home where he and his mates have one helluva night. Okay, that's not correct. Though he does take the bag, its owners soon come looking, landing our hero on the run and in serious trouble. Assuming Tommy Lee Jones (who also stars in the film) will play the lead, Harrelson could be heading toward a part as the nasty, drug-addicted villain. Seems like the perfect fit -- after all, the dude was pretty convincing in Natural Born Killers. Eh?

I wasn't at all sure I would like Gretchen. First of all, promos kept comparing it to Napoleon Dynamite, which I couldn't stand. And even in the first half hour of the film, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to react. A lot of audience members were laughing at the title character when I felt nothing but empathy for her.

Gretchen is a teenage loser: she wears bulky sweaters and turtlenecks to school, swings her arms wildly when she runs, and tends to stare at people a lot. But for some of us who once had teenage loser tendencies, her predicaments felt more real than comic. One of Gretchen's rivals tells her that she'll never be attractive because of her taste in clothes, her flat chest, and her ugly face, and although the speech is blunt, it sounds genuinely high school.

That's ultimately what made me like Gretchen more than I anticipated: it captured an authentic teenage experience, one without easy answers and a tidy, amusing resolution. The filmmakers didn't resort to the usual teen stereotypes or sitcom-style problems, and the characters are viewed with compassion and not contempt. Gretchen's actions and the subsequent results are more extreme than most of our high-school experiences, but her anxiety and frustrations are universal.