Sicario

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Joe B A visceral look into the cost of being an American. Superb performances by an incredible cast. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/12/24 Full Review Michael D Recently re-watched and thought highly enough of it to make it my first ever review here. While not an adoring fan of everything Villeneuve, his approach often does resonate with me. I appreciate a movie in which the fuse burns slowly, there's very little by way of over-explaining anything, and motivations aren't on-the-nose obvious. The way I read this film, the intent is not for it to be some sort of believable depiction of how drug cartels and the forces fighting them work in the real world. It seems to me that realistic and straightforward plot-telling is purposely avoided. Instead, the backdrop of what would otherwise be a typical action-thriller type story is used to highlight the absurdity of trying to maintain control over situations where stakes are so high and there's no limit to the level of violence people will engage in. Even taking those factors into consideration, however, I'm baffled by some of the harsher critiques I've read, here, that cite the plot as being hard to follow, or Emily Blunt's character, Kate, being all but pointless to the outcome. Regarding the plot, it's not too complicated: a guy wants revenge. I can't see that there's much need to follow it more meticulously than at that level. As to Blunt's character, Kate, it seems pretty clear to me that her whole point is to be pointless. She represents the last shred of adherence to rule of law and sane process -- concerns that are shown to be laughably ridiculous as she gets used and abused at every single turn in her attempts to hold true to them. Perhaps the problem is with viewers trying to read Kate as the protagonist of the story. She isn't that. The protagonist of the story -- in aggregate -- are the people trying to live out their normal lives in the midst of the insane violence. This is, at least to me, clearly shown as we see scenes of people playing games in parks, trying to shop and live, etc. This aspect is embodied more clearly in the story of the police officer and his wife & son. There are other clues, such as when Jeffrey Donovan's character muses about the "brilliance" of the cartels in murdering & mutilating uninvolved people to send a message. So, bottom line, if you are looking for an action movie wherein the action leads to some sort of satisfying moral resolution, in which a "good" protagonist "wins" against an "evil" foe -- this ain't that. But if you're okay with stories that don't compartmentalize readily into morally unambiguous themes, then you'll be able to get something from it. The performances are all very good. I respect Villeneuve as a director because he clearly knows what he wants from a scene, and gets the performances he needs from his cast. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 12/10/24 Full Review Guy M The film does not actually circle around the life of the Sicario and instead follows the problems of Emily Blunt doubting every step of the way. It is almost as if they piled the worst things about modern action films and tripled down Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 12/04/24 Full Review Guy C Self indulgent series of boring scenes piled on top of each other with the focus sloppily set mainly on Blunt instead of the titular character(Del Toro) and she has nothing to offer besides the usual "too busy for a relationship" trope and her sidekick who is as meaningless as every other character that comes into this awful picture with a perfect cast that had nothing to work with. All of the off-camera violence was desperately needed in this sluggish snoozefest. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 12/04/24 Full Review Julian P We wish there were more female action leads but it does require a particular type of actress who can pull it off and blunt does it very well. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/30/24 Full Review Dave S Fantastic! Great acting, script and directing. One of the best FBI vs Cartel movies ever made. Del Toro stole the show. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 11/24/24 Full Review Read all reviews

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