I was really looking forward to this, but it's something of a disappointment. There are three extremely tense set-pieces/shoot-outs, and not a whole lot else in between.
Emily Blunt has the main role, but her character is desperately thinly written. She spends most of the movie looking bewildered and demanding some straight answers from Josh Brolin. It's not a question of bad acting, it's just that she has so little to work with. Brolin's own character is complete cardboard, all he's missing is a big cigar as he drawls out of the side of his mouth.
And even though this is a film about an amazingly vicious conflict happening literally a few yards outside the US, there's no real attempt to acknowledge the wider context of why all this has been taking place for the last ten years. I wasn't expecting one of the main characters to give an earnest ten-minute speech about the failure of the war on drugs or anything, but the whole thing is presented as a series of incidents in just another action thriller.
It's not an awful film, not even a weak one, but it could and should have been so much better.
Emily Blunt has the main role, but her character is desperately thinly written. She spends most of the movie looking bewildered and demanding some straight answers from Josh Brolin. It's not a question of bad acting, it's just that she has so little to work with. Brolin's own character is complete cardboard, all he's missing is a big cigar as he drawls out of the side of his mouth.
And even though this is a film about an amazingly vicious conflict happening literally a few yards outside the US, there's no real attempt to acknowledge the wider context of why all this has been taking place for the last ten years. I wasn't expecting one of the main characters to give an earnest ten-minute speech about the failure of the war on drugs or anything, but the whole thing is presented as a series of incidents in just another action thriller.
It's not an awful film, not even a weak one, but it could and should have been so much better.
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