One of the more unlikely face-offs of 2014 comes in the form of the conflict between pint-sized "Hunger Games" star Josh Hutcherson and Oscar-winning acting legend Benicio Del Toro as the world’s most famous drug lord. The battle in question comes in Andrea Di Stefano‘s "Escobar: Paradise Lost," which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend, which will be followed by a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in the next few days.
The film sees Hutcherson playing a young student who travels to Colombia and falls in love with a local girl, only to discover that her uncle is the notorious cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar (Del Toro, in the role he was seemingly born to play). The film received only so-so reviews from critics in the mountains this past weekend (including ours), but a new trailer has arrived, and it looks pretty solid to us.
Drawing inevitable comparisons with "Entourage" (which included a storyline in which Vincent Chase was cast in a film about the drug lord), the film looks fine, with the two leads, particularly the magnetic Del Toro, delivering what look to be solid turns. We’ll see in the next few days if the critics at TIFF critics receive the film with more warmth. In the meantime, you can check out the new trailer below.