Film Review: The Infiltrator

"Promise Me This Is The Last One..."

Who would have thought that Hal from Malcolm in the Middle would have turned out to be one of the biggest, baddest and reputable actors come 2016? Ever since making major waves in Breaking Bad with his sublime portrayal of Walter White, Bryan Cranston seems to be in the joyous position of being able to pick and choose what he wants to do, when and where, with his latest project, Brad Furman's The Infiltrator, only extending Cranston's pedigree as one of the greatest actors of this generation alongside a strong cast including Diane Kruger (Inglorious Bastards), John Leguizamo (John Wick) and Amy Ryan (Birdman) in a highly dramatised portrayal of Robert Mazur, a US Customs agent who goes undercover as a corrupt money-laundering businessman in order to bring down Pablo Escobar's infamous drug operation. Although The Infiltrator falters from hardly bringing anything original to the tale of undercover operations, the illegal drug trade and gritty crime dramas in general, it does benefit from a simply outstanding performance from Bryan Cranston in the lead role. Boy, does that man love being two-faced. 

Although plot contrivances and exposition galore prevent The Infiltrator from being as silky smooth as other films of a similar ilk, Bryan Furman's drama focuses primarily on the absurdity of an undercover operation, squeezing out tension left, right and centre in order to empathise with the central character and the torment of a double life in which one wrong step could potentially result in not only losing his own life but his entire family too. Adding to the deception is the inclusion of Diane Kruger as Cranston's makeshift fiancee who is only added to the disguise after a brief slip of the tongue, whose rookie nature only adds to the worries of our titular infiltrating agent. Although the ending is ever-so-slightly rushed and feels rather flashy in a mostly stripped down hard-edged crime drama, The Infiltrator is a solid two hour drama, one which if failed to feature the larger-than-life presence of Cranston in its' lead role may have failed completely. Thankfully for Brad Furman, Cranston is the film's selling point and rightly so; he's electric. 

Overall Score: 7/10

Chef - The Delectably Fresh Food Extrazaganza - Review & SPOILER WARNING

If you're looking for a new movie to get your teeth into, Chef is going to be your cup of tea. Just be sure to bring plenty of snacks as you're going to come out with the cravings of a pregnant mother to be. If it's not clear, Chef is about a Chef called Carl Casper (Jon Favreau) whose known as one of the best cooks in one of the best restaurants in LA. With world renounced Food blogger; Ramsey Michel (Oliver Platt) ridiculing him and his work, the job becomes too much for him and he embarks on a journey from Miami to LA in an old Taco truck selling the most delectable Cuban sandwiches with the help of his friend Martin (John Leguizamo) and son Percy (Emjay Anthony) in a bid to bring back the meaning to his life and become the father he wants to be with the aid of social media.

So you're probably wondering where the various big names come into play. Inez (Sofía Vergara) is Carl's ex-wife and Percy's mum. Inez's previous husband; Martin, played by Robert Downey Jr. is a character that is irrelevant. Merely a seat filler whose only role in the movie is to hand over the taco van to our protagonist with a little comedic scene thrown in for good measure. Much the same can be said about Scarlett Johansson and her role as Molly the head greater and waitress who has had a relationship with Casper and then disappears of the face of the earth when the story develops. The loss of the characters and possibly story avenues left me questioning what could have developed and how heavily they were played upon by sexualising both of them simply to fill seats and bring a few of Favreau's friends along to play. With the overpriced cameos, the acting was alright. I don't feel that there was any exemplary cases especially considering that I've seen little of Favreau's other acting projects to really decide if he was any good. My strong annoyance with many movies are young kid this is due to the fact that the children are typically terribly annoying characters and actors. Now, Percy was a little different. At times he was annoying as both a character and an actor yet the majority of the film he was fairly good.

Billed as a comedy, I was expecting a lot more from it in that department. What humour existed was light hearted and genuinely funny and was portrayed through interactions rather than the typical slapstick that we are usually inundated with so it's refreshing to see something that isn't trying to polish a turd. I'm looking at you James Franco. However, at points Chef doesn't feel like a comedy. Drama seems to dark and adventure to extreme. Perhaps a family adventure summarises it best, much like Walter Mitty but with less daydreaming and world travel. The ambiguity of the genre is nothing in the grand scheme but perhaps its variation has allowed it to become individual.

The overall outcome of the movie works together brilliantly. With some gorgeously bright scenes and a huge variety of shots of the mouth-watering food with a blend of music that is catchy and aids in livening up the travel scenes. Then the additional social networking shots that include the Twitter bird flying off into the sky was a great extra! It's genuine individuality and charming story alone is enough to warrant a watch and the comedy just increases that potential. Chef is a fantastic movie and deserves 8/10.

What did you think of Chef?