The Infiltrator (2016)

Admirable film.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

'The Infiltrator' feels more like quality made for television movie rather than high quality cinematic piece. The story is straight forward and the outcome is predictable, the film is void of any sort of style, and there isn't much thrills or tension. That doesn't mean the film was bad, on the contrary - it was quite good. But that's it - quite good. Considering the source material, and talented cast (who all were superb) 'The Infiltrator' could have been much more. Besides Bryan Cranston's amazing performance as undercover agent Robert Mazur, there isn't much else memorable.

I watched the first hour, then it got boring. Fast forward to the end expecting some action, but there was none.

Robert Mazer, a US customs official on the point of retirement, sees an opportunity for his undercover drugs operation to be given a revised initiative whereby they will pursue the laundering of drug money rather than the drugs themselves.Bryan Cranston stars as Mazer in this adaptation of Mazer's autobiographical book, which follows Mazer and a small group of fellow operatives into very dangerous territory as, under assumed identities as money launderers, they follow the trail of drug money back through the hierarchy of the Medellin cartel and its satellite organisations. The danger and the growing closeness with his fellow agent fictional fiancée threaten his marriage, a genuine affection grows with one of the drugs cartel and his wife, and an international bank is brought down.Bryan Cranston, as Mazer, is brilliant - why was this man not a star years ago? And the rest of the cast is solid, too, in a film which is essentially a suspense thriller - will they get found out before their infiltration exercise comes to fruition? The story told here is intricate: more intricate than it needs to be in a film which doesn't need the detail, much of which isn't greatly plot-relevant, in order to tell the story. You are left concentrating on intricacies which don't really matter: the real-life denseness, in which every detail mattered hugely, could have been simplified more than it has been, because the main plotline is actually relatively straightforward.And, because of this, and because it retells a real-life story, there are details thrown in which go nowhere. We expect the conventions of film to apply, so when a big thing is made of a gift of jewellery, we expect a major plot pay-off; instead we get a minor sidenote.This is quite a good movie and, I suspect, a pet project of Cranston (he and Mazer are co-credited as executive producers), but it didn't have, for me, the impact it felt as if it expected.

Once Breaking Bad was over, Bryan Cranston became a somewhat unlikely Hollywood leading man scoring an instant Best Actor nomination for the biopic drama Trumbo.He's returning to his secretive crime sweet-spot with The Infiltrator but instead of playing the crook, he takes on the role as an undercover cop looking to break into a massive drug cartel that stretches all the way to Pablo Escobar and take it down from the inside.There's no denying that the 1980s-set story of Bob Mazur is a riveting one and, given its basis in truth, one that should be told. It should end up as some sort of Scarface/Donnie Brasco hybrid but when all is said and done, The Infiltrator lacks the power of either.When Mazur gets close to Escobar's top lieutenant Roberto Alcaino (an excellent Benjamin Bratt), the emotions should've been running high and the scene set for a Greek tragedy but director Brad Furman's story is too on the level to resonate deeply.Put simply, The Infiltrator lacks emotion. It tells the story of an undercover agent who goes undercover and does his job quite well. It sidesteps true conflict and thus fails to stay memorable outside of the odd nicely photographed scene. Cranston gives it his all, further establishing his reputation as a dependable leading man. It's a shame that the rest of the film fails to match his ambition.