The Peacemaker vs. The Counselor

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1 comments

The Counselor seems to me in many ways NOT a good movie, yet I feel drawn to it. There is something free and uninhibited about it. As if, perhaps, the people behind it just thought "What the hell?" The Peacemaker is much more conventional and coasts more on my fondness for Nicole Kidman and George Clooney. Of course, I adore Penélope Cruz, but she doesn't do much in The Counselor. No, the movie is beyond all its performers. Anyway, I guess The Peacemaker is more entertaining.

I just feel like not much actually HAPPENED in The Counselor. Just as with another Ridley Scott film, Body of Lies, I will remember very little about The Counselor beyond an extreme scene of torture. (When the bolito is first described, you KNOW somebody will die that way, and the scene is spectacularly effective, to be sure.) And an excellent performance by Fassbender. And Javier Bardem's hair. Okay, and Cameron Diaz having sex with a car. Maybe I'll remember more than I thought. But it still seemed all style over substance, like several of Scott's films. (It's such a treat when he gets the style and substance in equal measures.) Sure, The Peacemaker is more conventional, but I'll be darned if I haven't enjoyed watching it three or four times since its release. It's an entertaining flick. I'll likely never revisit The Counselor, because there would be no point; I at least remember being entertained while I watched Body of Lies. (Okay, I shouldn't be talking about three movies when I'm commenting on a Flickchart pairing...)