JUST IN TIME FOR XMAS

The Coen Brothers remake TRUE GRIT

Following the murder of her father by hired hand Tom Chaney, 14-year-old farm girl Mattie Ross sets out to capture the killer. To aid her, she hires the toughest U.S. marshal she can find, a man with "true grit," Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn. Mattie insists on accompanying Cogburn, whose drinking, sloth, and generally reprobate character do not augment her faith in him. Against his wishes, she joins him in his trek into the Indian Nations in search of Chaney. They are joined by Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who wants Chaney for his own purposes. The unlikely trio find danger and surprises on the journey, and each has his or her "grit" tested.



Zhang Yimou remakes The Coen Brothers BLOOD SIMPLE

A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP

It looks amazing. The Coen brothers 1984 debut feature Blood Simple is a hard movie to show up. Set in a gritty rural Texan town, it's as pulse-quickening and shocking as any thriller about cowboys and contract killers. It gets surprisingly violent for a movie - even an indie - from 1984. But sweet, sweet violence: thy name is the Coen brothers.

Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of Flying Dagger) updated the Coens' neo-country-noir classic with an excellent twist: transplant it from the backwoods of Texas to a tiny Mandarin noodle shop, and A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop is born. It looks beautiful and slick - a departure from Blood Simple which was beautiful (in its own bloody way) but gave you the impression that there was sand under your nails the entire film.

Finally. Mainstream moviegoers will finally get what they want: A Coen brothers' movie about marital infidelity set in a Chinese noodle shop. Audiences win!