No Country for Old Men (2006)

A rewatch.  When watching No Country for Old Men  the first time, I was glued to my seat. "What's next?"  I wondered.  And "how will Moss get out of this?"  Similarly, every scene with Chigurh filled me with dread and hope.  On rewatch:

• All the suspense is gone and (unlike a Hitchcock film) there's not much left.
•  The acting and photography hold up and is very good. 
• The characters are unengaging/flat.
• The story is a downer.  The ending weak. 
• Tommy Lee Jones is even more annoyng.

No Country for Old Men.  Book vs. Movie 

The Coen Brothers stick closely to the novel, and include large slabs of Cormac McCarthy's dialogue.  Other than vastly cutting down on Sherriff Bell's first-person ruminations,  I noticed the following changes:

• The novel's subplot with Moss and 15 y/o Hitchhiker is cut.
• In the film, Movie Chigurh meets Welles at the  Downtown Hotel Eagle and after killing him, picks up  Movie Welles' ringing Room phone and talks to Movie Moss. In the novel, Welles has set out a transponder in a Highway motel room to ambush Chigurh, but is outsmarted and killed.  Immediately after, Chigurh intercepts Moss's call to Welles' cellphone.  The movie is an improvment,  since using a cellphone is a needless complication,  and its implausible that Welles would be taken by surprise after setting up an ambush.
• In the novel,  Moss gets the drop on Chigurh at the Hotel Room, Moss questions him but doesn't search him.  Rather than shoot him in cold blood,  Moss leaves through a window.  He's shot by Chigurh after he drops onto the street. Moss then wounds him.  Moss escapes due to a gunbattle between rival drug gangs.  The film makes the scene more suspsenseful by having Movie Moss simply exit when Movie Chigurh fires into the room. Movie Moss then wounds Movie Chicgura after the car crash.  The gunbattle between rival gangs is eliminated.
• The Coen Brothers add the murder of a Man hauling chickens (black humor i suppose).
• The film adds a dog to the action when Movie Moss flees the Drug dealers. 

Summary:  "No Country for Old Men" is a very good movie the first time round. But its excellence relies heavily on suspense and plot twists.  With a sad ending, uninteresting characters, and  disjointed story, its rather boring the 2nd time round.   Rating lowered to **1/2