21 October 2015

Sicario, 2015 - ★★★½

Sicario is a good film, maybe even a very good film but I'm not sure if it's a great film. My problem is that this is just what I expect a thriller to be and so it doesn't seem special until you compare it to the majority of underwritten dross that is unnecessarily released.

There's a plot hump (which is what I've decided to call this kind of thing) I couldn't overcome whereby I didn't understand why Kate was selected in the first place, surely there was a less idealised FBI agent available? I also agree with Filmspotting's Adam Kempenaar that the Mexican cop scenes are far too obviously manipulative but having said that are they required to make the final scene work.

I'm in little doubt that this is one of the best looking films of the year. Everybody is talking about the tunnel sequence but it was the silhouetted scene before they enter which really stood out to me. It's also one of most tense films with each of the big set pieces working really effectively. The final scenes between Kate and Alejandro would have also been great if some fools hadn't announced details of a potential sequel and removed most of the tension.

There were many moments when I thought this was going to be another soundtrack for my collection but after the initial hooks the music didn't seem to go anywhere as interesting as I had hoped and that's ultimately how I ended up feeling about the film overall.

October 21, 2015 at 10:56PM

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