what you see is not what you get

Rating: 3/10 (20 February 2008)

This movie, while intriguing at some points, was made to be somewhat of an action movie, which is what i went to see. This is not what i got. Recently seeing the ads, the movie is depicted as being full of action and lots of gun fights. Instead, the movie is mostly about how Denzel Washington's character smuggles heroine into America, with maybe three gun fights that last about 5 minutes each.
In a 3 hour "action" movie, i expect more than Russell Crow's character whining about how he wants a job in narcotics and to catch Denzel, and Denzel standing around with his family and friends in his mansion...
One of the few good points is the final fight when the police are trying to catch a drug smuggler who helped Denzel.
The previews were very misleading and the movie, while have some interesting points, was certainly not worth 3 hours of my time, when i went to see maybe 30 minutes of it.
I know that the movie is supposed to be a true story, but even so, if it had been advertised as more of a history piece, i would not have had such high expectations of it.
Also, this movie just continues to go with the "war on drugs" theme that the U.S. is currently going through (and has for quite some time). It's getting a little old, if you ask me.
If your going to advertise a movie as an action flick, that it better be an action flick!