Great performances in a gripping and entertaining film

Rating: 7/10 (31 January 2016)

Emily Blunt ('Looper') plays Kate Mercer who is a US Police officer tracing down hostages. As the Mexican drug cartels up their game and bring death and destruction to mainland USA she gets picked to help an elite team to take on the bad guys.
She is introduced to Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) who takes her by, the proverbial, hand and they head off for a mission that she grows ever more uncomfortable with as she starts to realise they may not be playing strictly by the rules.
**Mild spoiler Alert** Now this is a fairly mainstream and has had a lot more 'press' from my normal fare in films. However, for once the 'hype' is actually well deserved. Benicio Del Toro is sublime playing the avenging gun for hire. There is a palpable tension for a great majority of the film and whilst there is some violence it is actually fairly tame – on the whole that is. It is though a very well made film that will have you gripped. It makes a passing attempt at the 'victims' being everyone but mostly it is a 'them or us' scenario from the start and through out. This still comes up as being a rather good film – so I can easily recommend.