What's it all about?

Rating: 5/10 (18 September 2017)

Emily Blunt is kept in the dark... so are we. Very very weak reasons for her entanglement in this drug cartel movie. 6 American SUV's barrelling down the Juarez highway in a super- coordinated prisoner pickup, and then that convoy being held up by a vehicle broken down in the border line up is a bit hard to believe. But .. it's great scenery and it does have Josh Brolin in it so it must be good,right?
Well let's put it this way, he's good because he slots into these type of roles easily and pulls it off. The movie is well shot and is a typical portrayal of the American perception of the best way to deal with those nasty purveyors of pollution. Shoot'em dead with no mercy is their answer and so they happily employ goons and psychos to slaughter people in the mistaken belief that the more you get rid of, the less there are to deal with.It's like stamping on ants at the entrance to their nest! In my innocent mind and in my little world, in my little circle of friends, I don't know any drug takers or dealers and the problem I have with the theme of this movie is the level of society's resources committed to stamp out the use of narcotics by maybe 3% of the population. Blowing the suppliers to smithereens doesn't make one iota of difference to the production line, it makes for good movie scenes, it makes for rough justice but it doesn't solve any problems at all. Even with these prejudices I got absorbed by Del Toro's ruthless character, I wasn't that impressed by Emily Blunt and it seemed to me that she spent most of the movie with her mouth open, gobsmacked by the stuff unfolding in front of her, not much in the way of building any empathy. I still can't get over the way these goons and thugs (the good guys I might add) wander into buildings , flit round a corner and think they're safe with a gun in their hand, I suppose it's necessary theatre but it's really stupid . To sum up , I was disappointed with a lazy script and a sub par performance from the cast, the scenery constantly outshines the rest of the project.