hyped garbage

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The film deals with the age old conflict of control of natural resources. In this case an international company called Clear-Bec runs water filtration systems. It makes deals with governments to take over the waterways used by the poor indigenous population, then turn around and sell them what has been free. Old progressives are familiar with this type of thing from Susan George's "How the Other Half Dies" (1976).In this particular case, the water in an Ecuadorian village becomes polluted with sewage and leads to a typhus epidemic which wipes out a village. Part of the damage control was to have the military ensure there were no witnesses. The incident is brought to the attention of Morgan Swinton (Deborah Kara Unger) part owner of the evil corporation. She has a conscience and wants to get to the bottom of the incident against the wishes of her brother and the rest of the company.She hires radio talk show host and former CIA agent Jack Begosian (Andy Garcia) who used to work on the other side of these types of issues. For him it is a chance for redemption and to bury those demons. His goal is to bring back the only witness, an activist who has the secret files of what happened, Francisco Francis (Forest Whitaker).The film is about a fictional corporation doing things that are not beyond the realm of reason, until they bring the fight home, then I had to scratch my head. Personally I would have liked to seen a dramatization of a certain soft drink company who we all know and love and their involvement with the assassination of union leaders in Columbia.Andy Garcia and Forest Whitaker are typically animated characters in stories. In this movie they are rather subdued and defined more by their philosophical ramblings than actions. The plot was fairly simple without any real twist. The final shoot out I found grossly unbelievable. I never got to experience the pain of the affected people, nor did I develop any type connection with the main character whose past, which was fundamental to understanding him, was not fully explained. Not as good as Sean Connery in the Amazon Rain Forest.Parental Guide: No F-bombs, sex, or nudity. Killing, some blood not overly graphic.

I've watched so many bad movies so far, and this didn't break the pattern. Here it is. Polarised for you in a movie that will put it in simple terms in case you're not able to grasp the concept. Big corporations are bad, capable of anything and exploitative of poor natives, the baddie is very bad - his sister very good (having experienced a sudden moment of enlightenment).Lots of poor natives get gunned down on a regular basis, individually and en masse, usually armed with nothing more but big (though undoubtedly sharp) sticks, but often with nothing at all - and in the back.Ex CIA man (obviously good) is the only one they can trust to get them out of their jam. He has experience of rolling down jungle slopes - and shooting people.And so it goes on. None of it is in the slightest bit convincing, Garcia least of all. As a Radio Quiet FM radio host he is excruciatingly dull and philosophising in a dreary monotone that, apparently, some people somehow stay awake to respond to.As a roughty-toughty CIA operative he's even less convincing, able to operate both automatic rifle and revolver in his thick, leather gloves. To show how honed his skills are, he can drive whilst on his phone and fire a pistol turned sidewise (gangster-stylee). He can even wear the same clothes for days on end. As the baddies get more desperate (and badder) this movie becomes more trite and ridiculous. Lots of complex stuff is explained in phone calls so we can follow the complicated goings-on. This is formulaic stuff and follows all the well established As-Bs to such an extent that this viewer stopped caring.The twist at the end ? Past caring.Forrest Whittaker ? Big fan ordinarily and he does what he can - but it's not nearly enough.

... because I couldn't get through it. I don't think there was an original line of dialog, and the story was as old as movies themselves. Andy Garcia still appears in an enjoyable film from time to time, but I have no idea what happened to Forrest Whitaker. He's become one of those people who, when you see them as part of the cast, make you think 'well, that has to be crap.' At one point in this tripe, Garcia has the line "I've done some things I'm not proud of," and I was sure he was thinking "like this movie" in response.His radio-show dialog is supposed to be deeply philosophical and wise, but it just comes across as hokey and clichéd, and everyone who 'calls in' sounds like they are in the first day of acting class.If you are perusing through your on-demand menu looking for an entertaining show, skip this one. Even when not original, a film can still be entertaining to watch, but Garcia's performance in this is so unemotional it basically puts you to sleep, and he's the exciting one! It gets a 3 only because I've seen worse, though I can't think of what they are at the moment.

The movie is underrated, maybe you have seen some moments similar to this in other movies, but this movie is trying to WAKE US->MAKE US->LEAD US- >HELP US understand that privatization should be limited and some things can be bought but not all are for sale. Even in my place there had been moves to Privatise Water, it hasn't been successful yet (Kerala,India). And hope it doesn't end up that way. This movie had all the potentials to gain stardom, but might have been brought down and not given much importance by huge profit makers from natural resources. Andy Garcia and Whittaker has shown great talents and even the Kevin's character I liked when he flipped sides, that was an awesome take and never expected such a twist. Hope movies like this gets more appreciation and more fame in the future.