chan-f
1 star in memory of each hour I'll never get back.
Poor plot, no script, no story.
A film full of verbal statements, Cameron Diaz with bad make up and Michael Fassbenders tears and nose dribbles.
Clifton Johnson
Critics hated this one because it was talky and plodding...a non-thrilling thriller. But it still has McCarthy going for it. The first hour of dialogue alone was worth the price of admission: dark and poetic and violent. It sucked me in, even if it did not fully deliver from there. The writing and the acting were great, even if the plot was flawed.
Critiquethecritics
One of the best movies. I am confident that most viewers did not like this film because of the complex plot and incredible dialogue. All actors were on top of their game. Fassbender is as awesome as his performance in Inglourious Basterds. Pitt the same in delivery, timing, inflection and cadence. Several scenes of dialogue rivals Robert Shaw's Indianapolis speech in Jaws. Technically amazing and a fantastic reality of the drug trade, corruption, violence, power and greed. Cormac McCarthy is an incredible visionary. Ridley Scott you are a true artist. Amazing cinematography. Highly underrated gem but apparently only if you are a film fan with a IQ above 70.
paul2001sw-1
Ridely Scott's film 'The Counsellor' tells the story of a formerly straight lawyer who decides to carry out a drug deal, which (predictably) goes wrong. But this is not a conventional action film, except for brief excerpts: in the main, it consists of its very cool characters having highly stylised conversations (typified by the fact that the hero is only ever referred to eponymously as "Counsellor") about action that is mostly occurring off screen. Or, as Mark Kermode put it, reviewing for the Guardian, "an A-list cast speaks B-movie dialogue with C-grade effects", playing "the kind of philosophising drug-dealers that even Tarantino would stay clear of". And while this is harsh, it's not altogether untrue. The rhythms of this movie do grow on you over time; but it's simply not as clever as it thinks it is.
