So much average

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Robert Mazer, a US customs official on the point of retirement, sees an opportunity for his undercover drugs operation to be given a revised initiative whereby they will pursue the laundering of drug money rather than the drugs themselves.Bryan Cranston stars as Mazer in this adaptation of Mazer's autobiographical book, which follows Mazer and a small group of fellow operatives into very dangerous territory as, under assumed identities as money launderers, they follow the trail of drug money back through the hierarchy of the Medellin cartel and its satellite organisations. The danger and the growing closeness with his fellow agent fictional fiancée threaten his marriage, a genuine affection grows with one of the drugs cartel and his wife, and an international bank is brought down.Bryan Cranston, as Mazer, is brilliant - why was this man not a star years ago? And the rest of the cast is solid, too, in a film which is essentially a suspense thriller - will they get found out before their infiltration exercise comes to fruition? The story told here is intricate: more intricate than it needs to be in a film which doesn't need the detail, much of which isn't greatly plot-relevant, in order to tell the story. You are left concentrating on intricacies which don't really matter: the real-life denseness, in which every detail mattered hugely, could have been simplified more than it has been, because the main plotline is actually relatively straightforward.And, because of this, and because it retells a real-life story, there are details thrown in which go nowhere. We expect the conventions of film to apply, so when a big thing is made of a gift of jewellery, we expect a major plot pay-off; instead we get a minor sidenote.This is quite a good movie and, I suspect, a pet project of Cranston (he and Mazer are co-credited as executive producers), but it didn't have, for me, the impact it felt as if it expected.

This is based on a true story and book of Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) working as a DEA undercover agent out of Tampa. Mazur gets the idea to "follow the money" instead of the drugs. The film is nearly 2 hours of him meeting and chatting with bankers and various members of the Medellin Cartel in project C-Chase which also tied into CIA operations and the BCCI, a later scandal that was so complex, even when broken down and explained, Congress couldn't understand it.The film is a real life crime drama. It has some action just when things are starting to creep. Some killing, some blood, some close calls. No one jumping from roof top to roof top. No car chase scenes, one car crash scene. No one fighting with a bullet in them. Action is bland when compared to modern super cop films.Guide: F-word. Brief sex. No nudity.

Some things can feel like a drag. Like being an investigative undercover cop. You don't have much private life and you can't have too many friends. Well outside of the fake friendships you may create to get what you want. And while this does not hit you with a hammer over your head, there are subtle hints and some obvious ones in the portrayal Bryan Cranston gives us.There are quite a few good actors in this and all is based on real persons and a real case. It really is difficult to capture all this and go into all the private moments. Even with two hours running time, there is certain things that have to be left out. But it still is very coherent and very suspenseful, from start to finish. It's not quite Infernal Affairs, but then again what movie is? This is powerful and while the most of the characters are despicable, they are also human beings and the struggle and transformation feels real.Having said that, I do understand if for some this is not enough, one criticism I didn't get is about the music. Soundtrack by the numbers? What is that supposed to be? You can dislike the movie obviously taste-wise, but I would seriously like to know what another reviewer meant by this.

The InfiltratorIn some ways this might seem like a straight up crime and drugs movie, with Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston in the leading role. But these true events and actual characters take you to the top of a government effort to undercut the money laundering operations of the biggest cartel of all.And Cranston is great. Around him is a really strong cast, including some disreputable types from all around. The pressures are huge, and the tension believable as people question who they can trust. Because to go undercover requires people helping you keep your cover, and that's increasingly hard because the money, and the low price of a life, are constant pressures.The movie is based in Florida in the 1980s, and it's a weird place to revisit. Diane Kruger is a great, relaxed presence once she shows up, and John Leguizamo is terrific as a sidekick, essential to the energy of the film.There some problems, for sure, with compacting the plot or characterizing Escobar. Or making the private life of the main agent so easily intertwined with the undercover world—they should be states apart. But never mind the quibbles. A strong, commanding movie.