Using the term "masterpiece" is always dangerous, but it's hard to refrain from that epitaph when writing about the Cohen brothers' "No Country for Old Men."

Coming to the Sunrise Theater Thursday, July 24, through Monday, July 28, as the final film of the popular "Movies You Missed" series, this one deserves its accolades. Called by one critic "a perfect mixture of suspense, humor and desperately compelling performances," it garnered four Academy Awards in 2007: Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Screenplay and Best Actor; it was also nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound and Best Sound Editing.

Based with chilling fidelity on the novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, the movie deserves its R rating. The violence in the story is very much "in your face," but always serves the dark story line. Set in a 1980 Texas border town, it chronicles the end of "one old man's country." The old man is Sheriff Bell, played by Tommy Lee Jones, who for years has ruled his county virtually without a gun on his hip. He has difficulty fathoming the hopeless and meaningless violence that results from greed and vengeance.

Sweet-faced everyman, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), stumbles on a drug deal gone sour and makes the big mistake of taking the $2-million-dollar swag. Death in the form of the "most amoral, evil psychopath in screen history" will follow him closely as he attempts to recover the money and save his own skin. Anton Chigurth (Javier Bardem) steps from the pages of the McCarthy novel as a villain of monumental proportions.

The artistry of the Cohens, Ethan and Joel, and their collaborators is what makes the film so purely terrifying as it unfolds. Their use of images and especially of silence to create tension and terror is unsurpassed in modern filmmaking. This is not a film you will exit whistling, but it is one you will remember.

The R-rated, 122-minute film runs Thursday, July 24, through Monday, July 28, at 7:30 p.m., with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

The Sunrise Theater is located at 250 NW Broad St. in Southern Pines. Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for matinees, and $5 for children under 12. Movies at the Sunrise are ad-free, and a variety of concessions is available.

For more information call (910) 692-3611 or visit www.sunrisetheater.com.