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Review | Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Jul 9, 2018 by Rip

I recently watched Sicario: Day of the Soldado, more to settle a debate between Tango and Luellen, than any desire to see the film. Don’t misunderstand, I thoroughly enjoyed the original because the film didn’t ask forgiveness for its own brutality and honesty. Enter Sicario 2, a film which literally began with a bang but slowly ebbed into a distant fizzle. Centered around the struggle for southern border security, Sicario: Day of the Soldado initially hinted at terrorist incursions from Mexico but then seemed to lose focus and dabble with with a handful of discordant topics including covert ops, changed allegiance and, most annoyingly, teenage angst.

In a predictable plot arc, the U.S. government decides Mexican cartels are now terrorist organizations, thus allowing a broader scope of interdiction tools on the battlefield. Chief among those tools is a steely-eyed covert operations officer, played by Josh Brolin, and our resident assassin, played by Benicio Del Toro. Things move quickly and initially the action is hot and heavy with small unit combat, a healthy dose of executions, but things take an odd turn as the film begins to lose focus and settles on the plight of two teens. Caught up in the mayhem of border conflict, both walk different and uneven paths further contributing to the lack of a cohesive experience. That trend continues downward which scatters the story and leaves the audience wondering why they are following the path of a teenage coyote with aspirations of grandeur.

What brings the film back from the edge is the acting prowess of Brolin and Del Toro. Masters of their respective craft, both deliver strong performances and elevate a weak script. In one particular scene, Del Toro musters incredible fortitude to overcome a tragic event and manages to do so with convincing intensity. The tone of darkness continued from the first film but, again, is marred by the uneven plot. Fittingly, the final scene finishes the job like an assassin putting the final round in the head of the target. Though I won’t drop a spoiler, I found myself in an eye-roll moment as the final line is uttered. Truth be told, kinda threw up a little.

Should the writers removed the teenage coyote and kept the focus on-point, this film could easily have rivaled the first but as things stand, we landed miles away from what made the original so enjoyably dark. In the final analysis, Sicario: Day of the Soldado is nothing but a rental, likely worth tracking down upon release but you wouldn’t make a mistake it you waited for a RedBox coupon — solid but not great, with a Rip Rating of 5/10. As for the original debate and for what it’s worth, I think I come down closer to Tango than Luellen — but not by much.

Huh, maybe someone else should see this...

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Filed Under: Film Review

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// about rip

Raconteur. Mediator. Gamer. Dilettante. Deliberative. Nerd. Serious world, not so serious here. “No word from Fenchurch today,” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

// TWITTER

Ripcordless avatarRipCordless@Ripcordless·
8 Jun 2021 1402340172390273028

Masterpiece.
A fucking masterpiece.

#insideboburnham
@boburnham

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Ripcordless avatarRipCordless@Ripcordless·
23 May 2021 1396515261528756227

And now we say goodbye to Gini. Thru his professionalism, expertise, & energy, he was a big reason for our recent success.

@GWijnaldum

Goodbye & good luck. You will always be in our hearts. #YNWA

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rogbennett avatarroger bennett@rogbennett·
16 May 2021 1393984445770833925

Liverpool’s Goalkeeper scores winner in 95th minute with season on line. Incredible sporting moment that almost cracks chill of my cold blue heart. Allison lost his father at the end of February. What emotions he must have experienced in this second 🙌🇧🇷

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Ripcordless avatarRipCordless@Ripcordless·
16 May 2021 1393991505279258624

Absolutely incredible.
Another “moment” in Reds history. We go again but need a hand getting over the line. C’mon Leicester! https://t.co/T5VwD1uKRT

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Ripcordless avatarRipCordless@Ripcordless·
15 May 2021 1393598553839194114

.@Speechify_audio Was interested but the price point ($12/month) for premium is just too high. Unfortunately, the free voices pale in comparison. Great concept, may return if/when price drops.

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Before I answer why, let’s talk about the rules. Here, I chatter about unimportant things. I stay in the shallow end of the pool, speculating on pop culture fascination, the journey of Liverpool FC, while offering an opinion or two on gaming. Why? Because I enjoy the written word. There is both a precision and also freedom with its balance, flow, and elegance. And this corner of the Internet offers a place to dabble in topics which avoid anything with a fuse.

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