Jesus fucking christ this movie. What a supremely intense, fantastic story with some of the greatest scenes out of any action/espionage film in a long while. Eat your fucking heart out, Bond.
If you haven't seen the movie and like action/espionage (very little espionage in terms of the Bond variety, but when you watch it you'll get it; there's bits and pieces) and don't mind some gore and severe violence (there's actually not a whole lot of visceral gore but the violence itself is palpable), stop what you're doing and watch it now.
All you need to know is that it's about drug cartels, the US and Mexico, and how laughably pathetic the term "the war on drugs" is. That's all.
*************Spoiler talk**********************
Benicio Del Toro is the devil in this and I love it oh so much. I went into this movie knowing nothing, thinking Emily Blunt was the main character. HA! It threw me through a loop in the best way possible. It's also haunting because it's way too close to home for me and the bigger picture isn't just "not farfetched"...it's accurate. Badass antics from Del Toro aside, most of the things in this movie could've been from a crazy "Nightcrawler"-esque news reporter who wants to get in on the real action.
If you have seen it, what'd you think? How about that ending sequence with Del Toro's character and his revenge? That was the first time in any movie and probably will ever be in which I see two children and a woman killed and think nothing but "deserved". As in...for the cartel head; granted, the wife and kids were lucky in that they had quick deaths but it was deserved on the cartel head's end. I knew exactly what was going to happen when the motherfucker said "not in front of my children"...like..."Oh wow...you're really that stupid because you think that not only am I not going to kill you right here...but that they're surviving". I just didn't think they'd actually show it. Bravo. Major balls in that scene by the writers and director. Horrible. Disgusting. But from a movie standpoint, that was amazing and brilliant.
It's also got one hell of a score that is just dripping with tension and brooding in anticipation.