The film really isn't clear on why Michael and his crew were doing jobs for the Russians. Were they doing it for money? Where they doing it to get Michael son back? (This would be the least, cause the crew never talked about it). Were they doing it for this "unclear" reason?Woody Harrselson acting was bad. The detectives served no purpose in the film, because there was little investigations shown.

A group of corrupt police officers in Atlanta are on the hook to steal for the Russian mob, with each of them engaging with their own ever shifting lines of morality. One cop's son is used as a pawn by the son's mother, who is the sister of the Russian mob boss trying to get her husband out of a Russian prison. Follow that so far? Yep, it's pretty convoluted. As far as the casting, Aaron Paul as a useless junkie wasn't a good move. It is hard to feel sympathetic for his character, and you find yourself just wanting him out of the way as the movie progresses. Refreshing was a barely recognizable Kate Winslet as the Russian mob matriarch, and Casey Affleck not playing his usual morose type of character. Also, Woody Harrelson does a great job as Casey Affleck's uncle, an alcoholic detective on his last legs, but still with keen police instincts and the desire to protect his nephew's life and career as a young officer.

The movie keeps you on your toes and has a ton of action, bad guys, good guys and everything in between. Casey Afleck plays his outsider cop character very well as is becoming customary as he climbs up the chart of best young actors.Honestly the story isn't anything inspirational or transforming and it's a bit violent and gory but if you're a fan of Afleck then it'll deliver.

Sometimes a movie that starts off with lots of disjointed scenes can have real punch as you piece together the snippets of story - it can be quite satisfying as things drop into place and the story becomes fully coherent. Sadly this movie jumps from scene to scene and that disjointed feeling lasts until the end. There is a story and there is some sense to it but it just doesn't gel as a movie.The police are depicted as bumbling, incompetent and corrupt but this is so exaggerated (I hope!) that it means there is no sense of realism whatsoever. The movie doesn't build empathy with any of the characters or even tell you much about them, in any case virtually all of them are unpleasant, so I was left not really caring what happened to any of them. OK to watch if you don't expect too much depth.