Sony Pictures
I am quite the fan of the original Sicario, directed by genius Denis Villeneuve, which also boasted the brilliant cinematography of Roger Deakins, the chilling score of the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, the grizzled anti-hero charisma of Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro, and a magnetic lead performance from Emily Blunt.
The sequel has two of those, and those two elements still work well. The original movie was also sharply written, if a bit overwrought, by Taylor Sheridan, who returns for the sequel. My brother and I enjoyed the movie, even if we also started an inside joke that is a bit on the gallows humor side of things.
SICARIO: Day of the Soldado comes from director Stefano Sollima, who does a decent enough job. Josh Brolin returns as Matt Graver, professional dirty ‘fixer’ for the US government, now hired to track by his handler Cynthia (a sparsely used Catherine Keener) to shake things up in Mexico. The reason this time is there are potential connections between the Mexican cartels and terrorist attacks in the US. This is championed by Secretary of Defense (Matthew Modine) in a performance I can only really call ‘phoned in.’ It was not good, and this was the start of the movie.
Luckily things quickly pick up. So the plan is for Matt to get super dirty and once again join forces with former lawyer turned anti-cartel avenger or ‘sicario’ Alejandro (Benicio del Toro reprising his role). This time the plan is to stage a kidnapping of Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner), the daughter of a crime boss, but push the blame on a rival cartel. Wars in Mexico, etc.
Naturally there’s action, blood, explosions, and so on as things get out of control, things get hairy, people get oddly close, and friends must turn on each other. You know, the usual. None of the twists are particularly shocking, but there’s still of a lot of good coming from character moments and character rapport, such as between Alejandro (naturally mourning his family and daughter) and Isabela.
The story is thin, very much so, with a lot of focus put on set pieces and ambiance. Coincidence rules the day, and a parallel storyline with another character, Miguel (Elijah Rodriguez), meant to tie in seamlessly with the main storyline doesn’t quite work. There are moments too near the end that legitimately strain credulity, but there’s also a lot of little clever moments and fun action pieces.
Grizzled men are forces of nature here, with none of the charm of Emily Blunt or her character to balance the morally murky morass. I found myself enjoying the movie overall, despite its weak and inferior start and shaky ending. The gang tried to emulate Villeneuve and Deakins, but uh … they didn’t pull that off, let’s just say and keep it polite. They did their best.
Brolin and Del Toro are still stars here, shining and elevating everything, able to do so much with no words at all. The overall thematic structure doesn’t withstand much scrutiny though, and the movie struggles to be about anything at all. It’s no Sicario, but it’s certainly ‘Sicario 2’.
SICARIO: Day of the Soldado has a run time of 2 hours 2 minutes and is rated R for strong violence, bloody images, and language.
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