50 Movies Where Evil Won

Plot: A wealthy attorney (Michael Fassbender) decides to get involved with the Mexican Cartel and, in doing so, puts himself and his fiancée (Penelope Cruz) in mortal danger.

Time for a massive hot take: The Counsellor is a decent movie. Deeply flawed, sure, but it really doesn't deserve all the hate, and it sees first-time screenwriter Cormac McCarthy explore some of his usual themes - nihilism, fate, and the choices we make - to interesting, occasionally moving effect. 

It's a typically grim story from McCarthy. The unnamed Counsellor (Fassbender) makes an unnecessary choice to get involved in drug dealing and, through a series of unfortunate coincidences, finds himself in the Mexican Cartel's firing line when a shipment is stolen by a third party. 

After this, the ruthless cartel goes after the Counsellor and Laura (Cruz), his fiancée, and he's powerless to stop this. In one scene, he phones a senior cartel member named Jefe (Ruben Blades), and Jefe, speaking philosophically, informs him that there's no way to stop what he's set in motion, and all he can do is watch the nightmarish consequences of his greed. 

These consequences come in the form of Laura being kidnapped and murdered, and the Cartel later send Counsellor a snuff film of her murder. As for the woman (Cameron Diaz) who actually stole the drugs, she gets away with everything and flees to Hong Kong, murdering one of the Counsellor's associates (Brad Pitt) and stealing his money along the way.