i skipped through most of The Counselor because it was infuriatingly slow. There is one particular scene where the titual character is buying a diamond, and a exhausting speech on the nature of diamond quality, that goes on for .. uh, 5 full minutes?
I got the impression that ..
wait. It's more important that i say first that this is a Ridley Scott film. How can this man make films so shit, but also films so good. And, it's not just Blade Runner from 40 years ago; American Gangster is absolutely fantastic (8.5/10), Body Of Lies was ok, i suppose, Black Hawk Down is a really good film. The whole "Prometheus" problem is that he went full auteur, to much head up own ass kinda problem.
Anyway, while watching The Counselor i had the impression that he wanted to do something like Sicario - show the characters in their natural environment without pointing too obviously to what should take the focus of your attention - but instead of the gritty, down to earth characters of Sicario, he has a bunch of unrealistically douchebaggy rich criminals.
And, to play them, he went full casting overkill. For someone with the experience of Scott, he should know that if you have too many known faces, it takes you out of the suspension of disbelief. It's ok to see Brad Pitt as the scientist battling a zombie invasion, it's not ok to see Brad Pitt as Brad Pitt.
Speaking of which, Pitt was the only one i liked in the film. Alongside him, you have:
Penelope Cruz
Cameron Diaz
Michael Fassbender
Rosie Perez (the "hispanic policewoman")
Natalie Dormer
John Leguizamo ("bad hispanic guy")
Dean Norris (breaking bad cop)
.. and nearly everyone else cast in this film is someone you will recognize.
The story is mediocre, but that's not even the problem. A guy with money ("the counselor") wants to get in the coca business because i_love_money.jpg
He is warned that "if you deal with the cartels, you will pay a dear price"
He plans a deal, but despite him being methodical, the deal goes bad
His wife is killed by the cartels, and he cries in hubris.
It's the writing quality of some Twilight Zone episode that didn't make the cut.
But the real problem is how slow, tedious, and unfocused everything is. The vast majority of what happens is unnecessary and does not contribute to the plot advancement. You'll have things like two characters talking nonsense about their personal life for 3 minutes and then a single phrase that's plot-relevant, and then cut scene. It's like they started filming at the wrong time.
I was expecting to vote LOWER than the IMDb average but hey, won't you know it: 5.3/10 official score. And, i will second that.