When the first “Sicario” movie was released in 2015, it became something of a sleeper hit. The moody and stylish action movie also went on to receive numerous awards-season nominations.
It’s rare these days to see smart action movies.
I didn’t see “Sicario” until a year or so ago when I watched it on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed it enough that I purchased the movie on blu-ray. When I heard they were doing a sequel, I made a mental note to see it in the theater.
I did just that yesterday when I saw “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” (known overseas as “Sicario 2: Soldado”).
First off, “Sicario” wasn’t a movie screaming for a sequel. The movie — about the ongoing battle with Mexican drug cartels — really said what it needed to say.
But this is Hollywood, and anything with a whiff of success gets a sequel.
Here’s where things stand as the story in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” unfolds:
After suicide bombers kill 15 at a grocery store in Kansas City, the U.S. government decides to amp up its war on Mexican drug cartels. The cartels are suspected of bringing terrorists across the border.
So the Department of Defense brings in unorthodox CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to employ "any means necessary" to stop the flow.
Graver decides the best way to approach the problem is to start a war between rival cartels in Mexico (a strategy adopted from Afghanistan). In that effort, he employs mercenaries and brings in Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) to stir the pot and kidnap a “cartel princess” (Isabel Reyes — played by Isabela Moner).
Brolin and del Toro are two of the reasons the first “Sicario” movie was so good.
There’s something about seeing Josh Brolin in shorts and Crocs — looking like he just stepped off a surfboard — that gives the Matt Graver character a certain heft...
... and Benecio del Toro is eternally watchable as a mysterious black ops operative working south of the border.
“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” was written by Taylor Sheridan (who also penned the first movie). The scribe of “Hell or High Water” and “Wind River” (both of which I have yet to see) has kind of become the “it” screenwriter these days.
(He is also the mind behind the new Kevin Costner series “Yellowstone” on the Paramount Network).
While the idea of the government rebranding drug cartels as “terrorists” is interesting, it is similar in concept to the Tom Clancy novel “Clear and Present Danger” — where POTUS deems the cartels a “clear and present danger” and decides to send in the U.S. military to take down a Colombian cartel (after a political ally is brutally murdered by cartel henchmen on his yacht).
Unlike “Clear and Present Danger,” the story in “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” doesn’t quite realize its full potential, and everything unravels late in the second act.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still more compelling than most of the action movies you’ll see at the multiplex these days. The plot just failed to capitalize on the interesting setup.
That could be due to the fact the film didn’t have a “moral compass” like the first “Sicario” movie. The original had FBI agent Kate Mercer (Emily Blunt) — and idealist who becomes disillusioned by Graver and Gillick’s methods in fighting the cartels.
In “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” the “moral dilemma” presented in the storyline is left to fall on the shoulders of Brolin and del Toro’s characters to handle. I still can’t decide if each man’s response felt authentic, or a bit forced. I’ll let you decide.
There is also a subplot about a teenage boy who lives along the border named Miguel (Elijah Rodriguez) who gets recruited by criminals who ferry Mexicans across the border for profit — and his story eventually intersects with that of our main characters.
A new director took the helm this time out. Stefano Sollima replaces Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049”), and does a yeoman’s job recreating the moody vibe and style of the first movie.
As was the case with the first “Sicario,” the second film leaves things unsettled and up in the air (if “Soldado” proves successful at the box office, I’m sure we’ll see a third movie in the “Sicario” franchise).
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