The Counselor is a movie that has experienced filmmakers in front of and behind the camera and yet all of this wisdom is wasted on the final product. What should’ve been a slam dunk of a thriller is turned into a mediocre movie by people who know better.

Ridley Scott is the man in the director’s chair, and he’s no slouch when it comes to filmmaking. His list of credits is almost as big as the budgets of his films, so in other words, he knows his way around a movie set. That kind of experience has attracted an original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy (No Country For Old Men) and an equally impressive cast that includes Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem and Cameron Diaz. And yet all of these puzzle pieces crash into each other under the contradiction of Scott’s direction and McCarthy’s script.

Things start out fine as we learn that the titular counselor (Michael Fassbender) is engaged to be married but drowning in money problems. He’s a man who is living well beyond his means, and with a high maintenance fiancé like Laura (Penelope Cruz), it makes sense why greed starts to get the best of him. This avarice to make extra cash drives him to drug trafficking, and as anyone who’s ever seen a crime movie knows, these things never end well. The counselor even gets some counseling of his own in the form of Reiner (Javier Bardem) and Westray (Brad Pitt). They are his business partners in this shady deal who can sense his inexperience a mile away and warn him to get out while he still can. Guess what happens next?

If you guessed bad things happen to our main characters you guessed right, but there is something else that happens to our cast that doesn’t involve beheadings and gunfire. It’s amateurish and overwritten dialogue by Cormac McCarthy. The characters in The Counselor never talk like real people; they talk like fake movie characters trying to sound like real people. It’s a common mistake made by screenwriters who are trying to copy the latest movie fad but not by an experienced writer like McCarthy. The first few times an awkward line is uttered it’s noticeable but not a deal-breaker. However, when most of the film’s second half is littered with this drivel, it becomes way too much to take seriously. At this point, The Counselor becomes a parody of itself, which is a shame.

Another strike against the film is its empty direction. There is no sense of style or rhythm in The Counselor to at least give the viewer something to grasp. Scott has shown that even in his lesser efforts he is able to convey a tone and pace to his movies that show a master at work. There is none of that here and I fear the passing of his equally talented brother Tony last year may explain The Counselor’s shortcomings (this film was shooting when Tony tragically passed away).

Grade: C

Rated: R (for graphic violence, some grisly images, strong sexual content and language)

The Counselor opens in theaters on October 25, 2013.