Like so many Netflix original movies, this is a half-good work that makes you wish they'd fixed it's flaws. It's got a great set up - a modern day Three Kings where some former soldiers decide to rob a drug lord. And the cast is strong: Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, Charlie Hunnam, the Chilean guy off Game of Thrones.
There's decent ideas too - like they find more money than they expected, meaning more people will be after them; they take too much for the helicopter, but can't resist taking it all; the chopper crashes in the mountains, surrounded by hostile locals; Isaac has a local girl who the others don't trust; Isaac worked with a local cop who is corrupt... I kept waiting for these things to pay off but they don't. They only bit that did was when Affleck shot a villager and they came after him.
There's no interesting dynamic between the characters, no sense of shared history or secrets, apart from a vague camaraderie - everyone was a mate, everyone trusts each other - why not have more suspicion? No one loses it Treasure of Sierra Madre style - I kept waiting for someone to be greedy or cowardly or something - no, they were just pros. They have the girl and her brother... but just get rid of her! She doesn't even come along the second half of the journey!
We never meet any local - no drug dealer they stole from, no drug dealer associate, even the villagers are in long shot.
It's a film with fantastic ideas and all it had to do to be a good movie was pay off those ideas - be a film that delivered on its promise. But it doesn't.
It looks great, strong production values, and the acting is solid. Ben Affleck does more good work.
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