Featuring terrific actors, a great screenplay and excellent directing, “The Counselor” delivers everything a star-studded cast could live up to.

Among the film’s many stars are Michael Fassbender, who portrays a modest, straight lawyer tied up in a deal with the Mexican Cartel, and Cameron Diaz, who plays one of the film’s villainesses.

Predictably, the deal goes wrong and he’s in over his head when people closest to him start disappearing.

Director Ridley Scott, also know for box office hits like “Blade Runner” and “Gladiator,” does something entirely and uniquely different from prior films he’s made. In a departure from the monomyth structure, “The Counselor” is brutal to its protagonists and leaves its bad guys unpunished.

The movie touches on many philosophical points while giving the viewer a deeper, darker look at the lifestyles that accompany the Mexican Cartel.

With superb writing by Cormac McCarthy and great direction from Scott, they demonstrate the brutal realism that things don’t always work out for the best.

A beautiful cast including Penelope Cruz and Brad Pitt add a sexy touch. Shots of lavish cars, homes in the hills and cheetahs in the driver seats of Range Rovers give the movie an exotic mood.

“The Counselor” feeds a craving for high-octane car chases and gunfights as well.

In one scene, armed men driving a fleet of SUV’s hunt the Counselor’s friend through the desert. The suspenseful chase culminates in the outnumbered gunman, wielding M16 rifles, shooting his way out of a kidnapping.

The film is not shy on depicting brutal violence and deserves its “R” rating from the MPAA.

In yet another scene, Brad Pitt walks, seemingly seconds away from escaping a grisly fate, when someone chokes him with a garrote so tight his head is almost severed. The movie is generous with blood and not even nearby pedestrians are spared from the splattering.

The movie never explores the motivations behind the deal, nor emphasizes what the deal actual was. It simply serves as a device to unveil the covert lifestyles of people involved in illegal businesses and the consequences of what can go wrong in that line of work.

Surprisingly, “The Counselor” doesn’t feel the need to lean upon nudity or sex like other films in its category. Instead, it garners appeal thorough the power of suggestion and the result is far more edgy.

Thanks to the powerful figures behind its production, “The Counselor” defies some of the stereotypes inherent to Hollywood thrillers today.