QUICK REVIEW: Sicario

Good day to you ladies and gentlemen, time for another recent film review and today I’m finally gonna be talking about Sicario. Now this was a film I really wanted to see after seeing the trailers online and in the cinema, I love a good thriller and the cast just made me want to see it more. Well thanks to Cineworld I got to see the film last night two weeks before its actual UK release, and now I’m gonna talk about it.

The story can be described as the following:

“At the border between the United States and Mexico, idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) is enlisted by a government official to aid in a joint task force tracking down an anonymous drug lord.”

I thought the story was pretty interesting. I feel like the trailers painted the film as a crime thriller with a more familiar plot device in place for the Americans involved, instead you get a lot of good lies and deceit, tension, moral shades of grey and drama, however the plot never unfolds the way you’d expect. Plus it doesn’t help that the pacing felt slow and for a little while you’re left wondering where this film will go plot-wise. That being said, a little ways into the film there’s a revelation revealed and the focus switches up and then the film becomes WAY more interesting than it was before. I will not state when or why, but when you see it you’ll know and that singlehandedly made the film better to watch. It feels wrong to fault a film for not turning out the way that you wanted it to, but at the same time, you like what you like and if a film doesn’t give it to you, then that has to be noted.

The cast was impressive, but the best performances came from Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro. Firstly Emily Blunt as Kate Macer was great, she was this strong, smart and capable FBI agent who had a good moral compass and wanted justice for the all the wrong-doings that took place. However she realises that something’s wrong and is part of something that she didn’t sign up for and searches for answers with varying consequences. Blunt is such a great actress, she’s beautiful, yet badass, confident and vulnerable, headstrong but also naive and she does so very well with her material. But someone who may be even more impressive is Benicio del Toro as Alejandro, this character comes across as the strong, silent type or maybe silent but deadly type, either way he only speaks when its relevant and you’re not quite sure of his position in the story even though he’s working with the US government, but when this guy gets his time to shine, he’s unforgettable. This film reminds me of how intimidating and scary del Toro can be and why he is such a great actor, he genuinely blew me away and I loved his character.

Josh Brolin as Matt Graver was great, he’s a character who was charming and funny, but also had priorities and knew to assert himself in an authoritative when needed or when he wanted to, this was a side of Brolin I hadn’t seen for a while and I enjoyed him performance. Jon Bernthal as Ted was also good, I liked how fun and aggressive he was and always Bernthal turned in a good performance. Maximiliano Hernández was good as Silvio, offering a character I hadn’t seen from him before, but was interesting to watch. Victor Garber (an actor I’ve always remembered from 1997’s Cinderella) was good as Jennings, I also liked Daniel Kaluuya as Reggie Wayne and Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing.

In conclusion Sicario was a good film with moments of brilliance, however it was not nearly as good as I was hoping for. It had a strong subject matter, great performances from Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro and some lovely cinematography and well-filmed action scenes, though the story just didn’t engage me like I thought it would. I may be in the minority of people that didn’t love Sicario and I think this film will do well with most movie-goers and critics, but for me it was good but not great.

Rating: 7.5/10

So what did you think of Sicario? Whatever your thoughts are be sure to drop them below and let me know. Until the next time, see ya later! 😀