Joel and Ethan Coen are hot property in Hollywood at the moment thanks to the release of their latest feature 'No Country for Old Men'.

The directing and screen-writing brothers already have several successful films to their credit - think of 'Fargo', 'The Big Lebowski' and 'O Brother Where Art Thou' - but with the release of 'No Country For Old Men' the Minnesota brothers could be looking at their greatest commercial, and critical, success to date.

Having just won two Golden Globes for this film (the more important, for the brothers anyway, being the Best Screenplay award), and narrowly - some would say inexplicably - missing out of the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival (the Palme d'Or) the film already looks a shoe in for some recognition by the Academy.

PLEASING

And, whatever about pleasing the critics, 'No Country for Old Men' seems to have grabbed the public's attention with huge box office sales already recorded across North America.

Set in rural Texas in the 1980s 'No Country' is basically a pursuit picture which very much has the appearance, and many of the traits of a modern, albeit an exceptionally violent, 'Western'.

When Vietnam veteran Llewelyn Moss, played by Josh Brolin, stumbles across the scene of a drug deal gone bad - where all but one of the participants are dead - near Rio Grande he finds a bag containing $2 million.

Moss takes the money and leaves but later has a conscience attack and returns to the scene to try and help the dying man, which turns out to be a huge mistake as this gives away his identity.

Now, you don't expect to take $2 million of somebody else's money and get away with it do you? So when the people who the money belongs to discover it's gone they are less than pleased.

INTENTION

These people have every intention of getting the cash back and employ the services of hitman Anton Chigurh to trail the money and recover it - whatever the human cost.

In Chigurh, played chillingly by Javier Bardem, we are presented with a relentless and unstoppable killing machine who shows no mercy in the pursuit of his prey.

And, in between these two very strong characters is Texan sheriff Ed Tom Bell (played by Tommy Lee Jones) who is on the trail of both men.

The film begins with a voice-over from the sheriff who is despairing about how violent, and lawless, Western Texas has become. And, ironically, the men he is chasing may prove to be more violent than any he has yet to come across.

HITMAN

Add into the mix Moss's wife Carla Jean (played by Kelly Macdonald) a rival hitman played by Woody Harrelson and a gang of pissed off Mexicans and you have a very fast moving chase movie in which the hunters often become the hunted.

As well as following the individual characters on their own the film stages a few big set pieces where their paths cross with rather violent consequences.

This part of Texas, along the Mexican border, is a harsh and desolate place and this isolation and the unforgiving climate and landscape provide a perfect backdrop for a movie in which little will survive to the end.

The locations - Rio Grande and El Paso to name a few and the blood-spilling violence also tie in with the 'Western' theme.

While 'No Country for Old Men' will not be to everyone's tastes it is a gripping chase movie that is never predictable and in which you wonder will there be any winners, or will there be anybody left, by the end credits.