Hénaurme déception vu l'auteur,le casting et le réalisateur !...
*
*
Uhhh...what?
Author: spendthedaytogether from United States
24 November 2013
I actually hadn't heard of The Counselor before a friend invited me to see it, so I just quickly checked the one sentence synopsis at the top of the page on IMDb. Basically, I had no expectations or knowledge about what the movie was about or who was in it.
I honestly have very little understanding of what happened in this movie. It is one of the most confusing, disjointed films I have ever watched. From reading about it, you can see that it has a good cast and pretty original storyline, so what could go wrong? Believe me, what you actually see on the screen seems to defy logic.
The first 10 or 15 minutes make the most sense, relatively speaking, but it's all downhill from there. The movie jumps from scene to scene with little explanation or context as to what is happening or why. I kept patiently waiting for everything I was seeing to be tied together, but it never happens. You keep seeing the same actors in a new scene, but there's nothing telling you what it has to do with the scene you just watched before it.
I understand films do not necessarily need to follow a linear plot; plenty of other films have proved this to be true. However, if not following a linear plot, there should at least be SOMETHING that tells you how each scene is related, or at the very least a culmination at the end which explains all the previously unanswered questions. It just never happens. I left the theater more confused than ever, and the friend I was with felt the same way. I don't think we even cared that much about what happened anymore and were frankly just glad we didn't have to watch any more.
I don't know how anyone could really enjoy this movie unless they were looking for something with no action, no plot and dialog performed by actors who seem more bored than I was just watching the film. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was the worst or even one of the worst movies I've ever seen, because it very easily could have made for a decent watch, I just have absolutely no idea what the director was trying to do.
59 out of 90 people found the following review useful:
The Counselor: I Advise You to Stay Away
Author: Brick Movie Reviews from United States
28 October 2013
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Down in Mexico, drugs flow like water. When a successful lawyer decides to go into business with criminals to get a piece of the action, the blood starts flowing too. The Counselor focuses on the Counselor (Michael Fassbender) and his business dealings after he becomes engaged to Laura (Penelope Cruz). With things going smoothly in his life, the Counselor tries to make some money on the side by getting himself mixed in with drug trafficking and opening a club with his friend, Reiner (Javier Bardem). Being a successful businessman and criminal, Reiner is mixed up in a confusing sexual relationship with Malkina (Cameron Diaz) who ultimately has ulterior motives from standing by Reiner's side. With the club being funded by Westray (Brad Pitt), things for the Counselor could not be better, that is until one of his clients, Ruth (Rosie Perez), calls the Counselor from jail, and asks him to get her son released from jail over a speeding ticket.
Thinking nothing of it, the Counselor gets Ruth's son out of jail. Once released, the son meets a man at a coffee house, picks up a device that belongs on the truck that is trafficking drugs, and leaves the meeting. All the while, an assassin had been spying on the meeting, and set a trap for Ruth's son, who speeds down the roads at over 200 MPH. After the son is dead, the assassin collects the device, and leaves the body in the road. The people Ruth's son were working for suspect the Counselor was behind the killing, since he freed the son from jail. Fearing for their lives, the Counselor, Reiner, and Westray scramble to save themselves.
Plain and simple, The Counselor, directed by Ridley Scott, is awful. The movie does not make any sense. The opening scene is an awkward lovemaking scene between Fassbender's Counselor and Cruz's Laura, and then proceeds to have sex as an underlying theme in the movie, which was, in my opinion, completely unnecessary. The movie is confusing enough without adding aspects that do not even remotely make sense in context. Throughout the entire 117 minutes, The Counselor jumps from scene to scene, plot point to plot point, without any sort of transition or explanation. To be honest, I had absolutely no idea what the movie was even about until I looked it up when I got back from the theater. Drugs were only seen twice, at the beginning and the end of the movie, and only mentioned once, which was strange given the fact that the movie was about drug trafficking. The acting was OK. None of the actors stood out and gave memorable performances. The storytelling was sloppy and haphazardly thrown together, and the writing was terrible. Quite frankly, my favorite part of the movie was the end credits.
Of the duds of October movie releases (Runner Runner, The Fifth Estate), The Counselor is by far the WORST of them all. Granted, I gave Runner Runner and OK review and The Fifth Estate an mediocre review at best, I would recommend those movies a thousand times before I would recommend The Counselor once. The movie was sloppily made, confusing, poorly written, uninteresting, and boring. If I could give it a lower number of stars I would but I cannot, so I stick with one star, and I beg you, please save your money.
Rating: 1 of 10
BrickMovieReviews.wordpress.com @BrickFilmReview
35 out of 48 people found the following review useful:
Wasted Talent
Author: ypomoni13
24 November 2013
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
There was nothing for me to like about this movie. The story evolves around a Counsellor and the people surrounding him. For reasons unbeknown to us he decides to go into the drug business, and pseudo-intellectual existential dialogues between the protagonists ensue, with the main focus being on greed and how sexual everything appears to them. Cheetahs chasing jackrabbits is sexual, a yellow Ferrari is so sexual that Diaz' character decides to make-out with it (yes, you read that correctly). The Counsellor is constantly being counselled on life and it's meaning by philosophical drug-dealers and cartel members. The tediousness of these overdrawn, often repetitive and rather self-indulged exchanges make the film feel so ill paced. The chemistry between the two main couples (Fassbender-Cruz, Bardem-Diaz) was non-existent. The characters are hardly developed. Were we suppose to empathise with the Counsellor? The acting was NOT good. The ultimate attraction to this film, for me, was the cast who in it's majority has seldom - if ever - let me down. And yet, here, even they were, to put it mildly, not on top form. The emphasis had been given on the aforementioned dialogue, something that was more obvious when the main plot of the film became increasingly convoluted and thus hard to follow. At the end all I felt was content that it was over. This is, unfortunately, the worst film I've seen this year.
93 out of 165 people found the following review useful:
Awful
Author: p-j-bailey-849-678777 from Newark
20 November 2013
Mainly sub standard acting, hum drum story line. All scenes are way too long and just do not work.(esp scene 4/5 way though phone call from car to drug cartel, fall asleep time it lasts that long) Attended showing in Newark on Wed 20/11/13 @17:45. Of the 19 people in 4 left within the first hour, most others took the proverbial it is that poor, honestly, its awful. Still confused as to why the wild cats were in it, the story never even attempted an ending for them, opening scene woman orgasms after 30 secs oral sex (never), masturbation scene on car windscreen is laughable, implausible and utter rubbish, Probably targeting bored teens. Save your money. 0 out of 10 more fun watching grass grow
33 out of 50 people found the following review useful:
Disappointing neo-noir from Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy
Author: george.schmidt (gpschmidt67@gmail.com) from fairview, nj
14 November 2013
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
THE COUNSELOR (2013) * Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Rosie Perez, Ruben Blades, Goran Visnjic, Dean Norris, (uncredited: John Leguizamo) Disappointing neo-noir from Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy (his first - and should be his last - original screenplay) which makes not-a-lick-of-sense about titular Fassbender (surprisingly wooden) who finds himself in over his head in a drug deal gone awry involving mysterious cowboy middleman PItt (far-too-sedate here), an obnoxious nightclub owner (Bardem relying on wild-hair and rock star accouterments instead of 'acting), and a drug cartel out for bloody vengeance. The cardinal sin of this potboiler is the first leaden hour cannot compensate for its too-quick-to-kill final one and wasting Cruz completely. While Diaz is the film's saving grace as a femme fatale with a feline complex nothing else is worthy or remarkable except how much of a dud this truly is.
19 out of 26 people found the following review useful:
As pretentious as the characters
Author: vinylsonfilm from Amsterdam
24 November 2013
I've been lurking on IMDb for years, always curious to see what the interwebs thinks of certain movies or films. And most of the times I can abide with the ratings. Not in this case however. Seeing that this movie is closer to the 6 than to a 4 I just had to register and rate this awful piece of pretentiousness.
When a movie gives you the feeling that your intelligence is failing you - several times I wondered if this is what it feels to watch Pokemon at the age of 75 - , something must have gone horribly wrong. Judging by the cast, the director, the writer, the shots, the locations and the props it's fairly safe to say that it wasn't a matter of budget.
The story itself has potential to be interesting, it is not super-original, but originality doesn't have to be the most important aspect of a good film. The way the story unfolds, or the characters develop can suck you in. But the pace of the movie (and I can enjoy slow movies very much so) is awful, the scenes are non-sensical and the dialogues are pompous. The highlight of the movie: Javier Bardem and the scene with the car had me laughing out loud, but Im pretty sure that wasn't the effect the makers had in mind.
Save your money and fight this piece of horrendous 'art'.
30 out of 49 people found the following review useful:
Awful, don't waste your time or money.
Author: ssandeelee
28 November 2013
We almost left after 30 minutes, it just didn't seem to be going anywhere but I kept thinking with the big name actors, it had to get better.....it didn't.
Should have cut my losses before the halfway mark, even though the movie finally came together, it wasn't worth staying for.
I did get one laugh though, abet a crude joke, but still funny, will never look at fish the same way again!
Brad Pitt was believable in his part but Cameron Diaz was not. Choose some thing else or save your time and money and stay home.
oh, and I no longer want to go to Mexico, and yes I know it was just a movie......
19 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
Stop it Cormac! Ridley and Cameron how could you?
Author: phd_travel from United States
3 December 2013
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I always thought Cormac McCarthy's stories a bit overrated. Gross gruesome and ugly. But this movie really takes the cake. It's bad beyond belief. What is amazing is how they managed to get top notch actors and director to do this movie. Unlike No Country this tale tries to contrast some glamorous with the ugly but the whole story is so pointless is just isn't worth the effort.
The sexual scenes are so bad they aren't even funny from the opening scene with Penelope and it's banal dialog to Cameron and the car. She is above such a degrading scene. She is A list. Brad Pitt all uglied up is above this too. As for Michael Fassbender I know actors more often than not have to take roles they can get but this one wasn't worth it. At least he didn't have to hump a car. The violent deaths and decapitation by that stupid device are just violence for the sake of violence and serve no purpose.
The screenplay is so badly written that the plot isn't clear in a totally unnecessary way. There are so many stupid things like why didn't Penelope's character get out of town straight away? What about Javier's character he knew he was in trouble too. The speeches by the characters are okay but hardly compensate for the story. The only good point is the ending is realistic didn't have any cute rescues but it was just so depressing.
Don't waste your time.
19 out of 28 people found the following review useful:
A wasted opportunity to do something more meaningful!!!!
Author: johnbren84 from Liverpool
18 November 2013
I just want to say that Film Muscle's review is absolutely SPOT ON, I was embarrassed watching this film it made me feel dirty and also quite uncomfortable. I appreciate what Ridley Scott has done for the film industry but he got this so wrong in so many ways, I don't normally write reviews so Im not going too, I just wanted to physically type down that I disliked this film immensely. What a disappointment, money wasted time wasted but the good thing for me was walking out of the cinema thinking Im going home to have a cup of tea and forget all about that nonsense. Should of listened to my girlfriend and watched Gravity instead.
18 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
Best Cast and Director of 2013, worst film of 2013
Author: aacbuk from United Kingdom
29 November 2013
The IMDb plot gives a reasonable explanation of this film, however the film doesn't do the description justice.
With such a great cast, and a great director the film has the opportunity to be a sexy, action packed, and entertaining film.
The sexiness is over-done, to an extent where all cast members end up as caricatures of themselves. The action is lacking everywhere, unless you want to see someone shoot an UZI 9mm for a few seconds, and even thats done badly. There are no fights, no chase scenes in either car or on foot. The dialogue is lengthy but unnecessary. At least Tarantino films are witty and engaging. You can see where they have shoe-horned dialogue in so you understand the deaths of 2 character later on in the film.
Sexy, no Action packed, no entertaining, no
£16 and 2hrs of my life, wasted.
