Review of The Counselor (2013) by Tyler R — 08 Jul 2014

Someone should sit Ridley Scott down and let him sit through his last couple films. It's almost like he isn't even trying anymore, and it's painfully evident in The Counselor. The film follows a lawyer who gets mixed up in illegal business.

Mixing Cormac McCarthy and Ridley Scott should've been chocolate and peanut butter, but what we get is chocolate and dog food. First off, the film is scatter shot and tries to "surprise" the audience with a couple of shock moments throughout, but they come off as tacky and downright weird.

And in the case of one scene involving Cameron Diaz, flat out mind-numbingly pointless and horribly tacky. The film never gives any sense of progression and the conclusion is extremely pointless and unsatisfying.

On the acting side, talk about a wasted cast. Sure, they do the best with what they have, but like I write more times than I wish, they aren't given much to work with. Michael Fassbender does the best job he can at mixing arrogance and fear, but he isn't given enough to work with and Javier Bardem is given a role that is as forgettable as it is pointless.

Other than them, everyone else is either wasted or thrown just to tack another big name on the poster. The film is painfully dull and boring from start to finish, and not even the top notch cast can save it from being a snoozer.