The Infiltrator, directed by Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer) and written my his writer-mom, Ellen Brown Furman. The movies is based on Rober Mazur's autobiography of the time when he was working as an undercover in the 80's. Mazur played as a corrupt businessman that infiltrated the Pablo Escobar's money laundering organization. On the main roles we see the great Bryan Cranston, probably most well known from the TV series Breaking Bad, and Diane Kruger, who plays Mazur's undercover partner. You'll know her most likely from Inglourious Basterds and National Treasure.
The strongest aspect of the movie definitely is the acting. Cranston does amazing job here with all his micro expressions, which makes his acting very real and live-like. The character development is good and you do really grow onto the characters, caring for them, which makes the intense and exciting scenes more so - you don't want them to get caught.
The true crime story genre has is a difficulties: the makers have to balance between believable, but maybe boring and dramatized, but not-so- believable, and I think they took one step to the wrong direction here. It can be a bit boring at few times and I missed some more drama and exciting moments. Do we really want to see what actually happened? Not always. I think documentary is for that, a movie should be a bit dramatized.
From here we get to the worse parts of the movie: I think it was slightly too long, I one time had the thought: "hmm, how long is this gonna last again", which is in my book, not really a good thing. The pacing seemed also a bit off sometimes, as it seemed to jump from events to other and following the movie, at least at the start, was a bit difficult, if you didn't focus on it all the time. New characters were introduced pretty quick, and you were left wondering, who is this guy? What does he do? What does it matter to the story? It did, however, get better till the end.
In short: it's a good movie. If you like true story based undercover crime movies, this is a good one to check out. It was intense and exciting enough at moments, though could have been more of that at some scenes. Just don't expect an action movie, but a movie about characters, especially Cranston's one, in which we get to see how he grows and changes as a person, when he needs to live in the grim business world of drugs.
Personally, I'd give it 4/5, but more subjective rating from me would be 3,5 out of 5 stars (or 7/10). In it's genre, there are better options, so that's why I didn't want to raise it onto the same level with them. If you like precisely the true story based undercover criminal movie type, this is worth checking out, but if the genre is a bit off, I guess you will see some flaws in it.
The half star comes, because I don't want to drop it among the mediocre mass production stuff either. It has flaws, but is still solid and watchable, if you like the style.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check more reviews at https://radioaktiivistajatetta-en.blogspot.com
The strongest aspect of the movie definitely is the acting. Cranston does amazing job here with all his micro expressions, which makes his acting very real and live-like. The character development is good and you do really grow onto the characters, caring for them, which makes the intense and exciting scenes more so - you don't want them to get caught.
The true crime story genre has is a difficulties: the makers have to balance between believable, but maybe boring and dramatized, but not-so- believable, and I think they took one step to the wrong direction here. It can be a bit boring at few times and I missed some more drama and exciting moments. Do we really want to see what actually happened? Not always. I think documentary is for that, a movie should be a bit dramatized.
From here we get to the worse parts of the movie: I think it was slightly too long, I one time had the thought: "hmm, how long is this gonna last again", which is in my book, not really a good thing. The pacing seemed also a bit off sometimes, as it seemed to jump from events to other and following the movie, at least at the start, was a bit difficult, if you didn't focus on it all the time. New characters were introduced pretty quick, and you were left wondering, who is this guy? What does he do? What does it matter to the story? It did, however, get better till the end.
In short: it's a good movie. If you like true story based undercover crime movies, this is a good one to check out. It was intense and exciting enough at moments, though could have been more of that at some scenes. Just don't expect an action movie, but a movie about characters, especially Cranston's one, in which we get to see how he grows and changes as a person, when he needs to live in the grim business world of drugs.
Personally, I'd give it 4/5, but more subjective rating from me would be 3,5 out of 5 stars (or 7/10). In it's genre, there are better options, so that's why I didn't want to raise it onto the same level with them. If you like precisely the true story based undercover criminal movie type, this is worth checking out, but if the genre is a bit off, I guess you will see some flaws in it.
The half star comes, because I don't want to drop it among the mediocre mass production stuff either. It has flaws, but is still solid and watchable, if you like the style.
Thanks for reading, and be sure to check more reviews at https://radioaktiivistajatetta-en.blogspot.com