Great movie. i got the message and you will too. Don't let the bad review ratings given here make you think different. Movie shows the reality of bad dealings or crossing the line and the end result consequences that actions can carry. Great cast, locations, sex, cars, girls and lavish life of the risk-takers. Film reminded me of 'Casino' and how they had something nice going but ended up fuckin' it all up in the end. Cameron Diaz made me stiff when she "rubbed" that Ferrari.

Weak plot, slow movie with short action scenes, the beginning had a pointless sex scene (brought no value to the movie), horrible ending. I would usually say wait until it comes out on Bluray, but it's not even worth the $1.50 at Redbox and certainly not worth the time it takes to watch it. Don't be taken in by the star studded cast.

The Counselor is a beautifully written, photographed and well-acted film that plays like a short story. Not every action is clear until later. When a scene begins, one doesn't ever know exactly where it's going. People listen to each other and have conversations that are not straight forward. And for all the thousands of "drug" related movies where running drugs is exciting, rewarding, dangerous and ultimately good guy vs bad guy with good guy winning---forget about it. This movie has the exciting and brutal taste of real life, the much more realistic sense that decisions made easily can have devastating consequences. In real life, the good guy may sometimes win but it doesn't happen so often when dealing with drug cartels and million dollar cocaine shipments. Cormac McCarthy has been exploring seriously the underbelly of violence and the psychology of the American misunderstanding that raises violence to a moral formula where only good guys win. Don't expect a formulaic plot.

had only seen one review of the movie, and went to see it based on the stars in the movie. i'll think twice about doing that again as I wish i had waited for other reviews, probably would have passed in retrospect. while it was depressing, it was not nearly as engaging as Traffic, for example. it was very tough to connect with the characters, and the dialog frequently seemed out of place - it just didn't make sense that a number of hardened drug dealers would go off on minutes long monologs with the counselor using rather educated language about the dangers of entering the drug trade. finally, and most importantly, the movie fails to properly convey what the "deal" was that the counselor had engaged in, nor why it went wrong and who was double crossing whom. at a certain point in the movie you just give up trying to figure it out.

I just fired Ridley Scott, Cameron Diaz, Brad PItt, and everyone complicit in making this spectacular piece of garbage from using their professional judgment to choose scripts based on any known benchmarks for enjoyable cinema. Due to their collaborative incompetence, I'll now use their choices to determine which movies I WON'T go see at the theater. Compelling protagonist? Nope. Every character was just an awful human being, with the exception of Penelope Cruz whose role could have been equally served in cameo, much like Goran Visnjic's sub-2-minute appearance. Fassbender, even during his emotional catharsis, couldn't stir any kind of compassion from the audience. The 'hero" was incapable of evolving into anything more than deserving victim of his own choices. PS: I wish I could have found a shred of value in the obtuse diatribes of Diaz, Blades, etc. I didn't.