THE INFILTRATOR *

Bryan Cranston is "The Infiltrator" and it's Pablo Escobar's drugs cartel that he's infiltrating. Brad Furman's thriller takes some time to build up a head of steam but once it does, about two-thirds of the way in, it's pretty exciting. Cranston obviously got the part on the coat-tails of "Breaking Bad" but he's miscast here, (even in "Breaking Bad" he was never that convincing playing the tough guy), and it's left to the likes of John Leguizamo as his tough-talking, streetwise partner and Yul Vazquez's flamboyant, bisexual villain to carry the picture.

There's a lot of plot to get through and even more characters, most of them hiding behind beards and all of them nasty. Where the film scores is in showing just how dangerous undercover work can be and there's a nice touch of black humour in the climax. It's said to be based on a true story and they do say that truth is stranger than fiction but this does seem rather far-fetched. It's certainly watchable but with a stronger script it might even have been memorable.