I don't necessarily object to the violence itself, Wesley...I object to the depression factor and the motives (?) behind the violence...the relentless negativity and nihilism of the plot. I've seen some ultraviolent films that I enjoyed quite a bit.

"The Road" looks like it might have possibilities. Maybe. Some fine actors are in it. I like post-apocalypse scenarios a lot better on the whole than serial murderer or slasher scenarios.

One really depressing film about a serial murderer that I was very impressed by, though: "Monster"

I thought Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci just did an amazing job, and it was a very moving tale of someone caught up in a downward spiral who just did not have the life skills to get out of it...incredibly tragic. The movie made you really care about the characters. It was made with the heart very much involved. That's all it takes for me to like a movie. I have to care about the characters and what happens to them. There has to be some compassion there. If I don't care about at least one of the characters and what happens to them, then why even watch?

That's it. That's the key. I can take a pretty heavy dose of nihilism, but I have to care about someone while I'm watching it. I have to believe there's something in them worth caring about.

This is why, for example, I liked "Natural Born Killers". It was a tragedy on a certain level...and it was also a great piece of social satire, of course, skewering all kinds of corrupt forces in society that deserve to be exposed for what they truly are. I've watched it several times, and the violence does not offend me.

There was some kind of moral emptiness at the center of "No Country For Old Men". No heart at all. Emptiness and defeatism. I don't go for that. It's not "cool" in any way to me, it's just ugly.