'The Counselor', based on the original film screenplay by Cormac McCartney, had the great pleasure of England's Ridley Scott at its helm to direct the thriller to the big screen. A film that is guaranteed to visually pleasure cinemagoers and frequently contain violence, as is expected with Scott's recognisable style, boosts an immensely talented cast of A-list actors.

Brad Pitt Michael Fassbender
Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender in 'The Counselor'

Michael Fassbender leads the pack which also features Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, and Javier Bardem. They depict a tale of greed, life and death as an unnamed counselor (Fassbender) makes the life changing decision to partner with a drug dealing criminal he has been defending for years.

The operations take place on the border between Texas and Mexico, an area ideal for drug cartels to take their product stateside, but the naïve counselor may have underestimated of what he got involved in when trying to make the easy money.

the counselor
Cameron Diaz's character is called 'Malkina' and Javier Bardem plays drug kingpin 'Reiner' 

The premise of the movie should deliver a captivating thriller and it has a more than capable cast to do so, but critics are undivided in feeling Scott's attempt lacked direction, delivering a dreary and hollow plot.

Watch 'The Counselor' trailer here

So what did the critics actually say?

Kenneth Turan from The Los Angeles Times thought, "As cold, precise and soulless as the diamonds that figure briefly in its plot, "The Counselor" is an extremely unpleasant piece of business."

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle equally buried the film. "It contains memorable dialogue, vivid characters and several superb scenes, and yet it still manages to be wrong, a complete miscalculation."

The CouncelorCameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz looking sexier than ever in 'The Counselor'

Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly added, "Considering the deep bench of A-list talent involved, Ridley Scott's new Southwestern noir, The Counselor, is a jaw-dropping misfire."

However, Kofi Outlaw from ScreenRant defended McCartney's screenplay, suggesting "The Counselor is a novelist-turned-screenwriter experiment likely to be met with mixed reception between the 'get it' and 'don't get it' types in the audience."

'The Counselor' was released on October 25th but UK cinemagoers will have to wait until November 15th 2013.

the counselor
Fassbender is the lead role as he plays the naïve counselor