It's Okay

rutzelb

score 5/10

This is based upon a true story

In the Mid 1980s U.S. Customs official Robert Mazur (Bryan Cranston) as Bob Musella goes undercover as a money launderer to take down the Medellin drug cartel run by Pablo Escobar. This involves a money laundering scheme involving the BCCI bank in London and this is the trail Musella is following.

This is okay, kind of bland, slow moving, no real violence as one would expect and has the feel of a made-for-TV-movie. Bryan Cranston is very good and he has those facial expressions - all the way through - that tells us he is waiting for the other shoe to drop and all will be lost. He is the main reason we feel tension throughout. Musella knows that if he doesn't do a good job convincing the Cartel that he can help releasing millions the US government is holding that he, his family and anyone else connected to him will be killed in a most brutal way. The operative words here are "a most brutal way" and this registers with Mazur as Musella in a very big way.

Musella's cover is almost blown when Yul Vazquez as Javier sees the recorder in Musella's brief case. Oh, oh!

Notables that gave excellent performances: Diane Kruger as Kathy, Mazur's set-up fiancé; John Leguizamo as Emir, Mazur's partner; Olympia Dukakis as Musella's aunt; and Yul Vazquea as Javier an Escobar go-between. However the two notables that really came through with above par solid performances were Carsten Hayes as Rudy (and may have been Pablo Escobar although this wasn't too clear), and Benjamin Bratt as Roberto, who is Escobar 's second in command, and who probably stole the show from Bryan Cranston.

Stay to the end to see what happened to all the players. (5/10)

Violence: Yes, but not much. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Yes, but not much.

rutzelb 12 October 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3560356/