July 16th in Chicago. Brad Furman directs this based on a true story picture about U.S. Customs agent Robert Mazur who went undercover to help bring down Pablo Escobar's drug money laundering operation. Bryan Cranston plays Mazur, a devoted family man and equally devoted to his job as an undercover agent (he gets offered retirement based on an injury stemming from a malfunction wire that burned him, he turns it down of course). Acting on some information from an informant, Mazurgoes undercover as a banker laundering drug money for the drug cartels.
Mazur struggles to keep his marriage together while being utterly dedicated to his job as he gets deeper and deeper into the organization, working his way to the top. He even brings his aunt (brilliantly played by Olympia Dukakis) in to cement the facade. Slowly they build their case an everything comes to a boil at his "wedding" (he's pretend engaged to another undercover agent) where law enforcement arrests everyone.
This is by no means a bad film but in terms of an "undercover cop" film it's not the best. It's mediocre to good. You're not missing anything by not seeing it. This bothers me because the source material (it's a true f*cking story!) is really interesting, its great cast but it's a "meh" film. This story is a perfect example of what law enforcement should do to money launderers in real life, PUT THEM ON TRIAL AND PUT PEOPLE IN PRISON!
Death Penalty might be too much but hard time in maximum security peniteniary would be a start.
Want to see a good film in this genre then see Donnie Brasco, The Departed or Internal Affairs. Those are much better films. This film actually follows the same premise as Donnie Brasco; undercover is obsessively dedicated, has moment where he has to "prove himself" to organization by committing a vile act in character, family life suffers, sympathy for a criminal who he's befriended and remorse for the arrest of said criminal when the sh*t goes down. I was never worried for Cranston's character. Now his partner Emir Abreu's (nicely portrayed by John Leguizamo) fate was in doubt but I wasn't given a chance at any emotional attachment to that character. Fine acting all around, decent pacing but the picture just didn't have it. There's a reason the film only received a 66% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's good but nothing special.
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