Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

Last April I finally watched Sicario and I loved it. It was not flawless but it had a compelling story, interesting leading character, great acting, and suspenseful and thrilling action. I wish I could say the same about Sicario: Day of the Soldado, a sequel that falls far behind its predecessor. 

It's been a while since the events of the first film and now Mexican drug cartels are smuggling suicide bombers across the border into the United States. CIA agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) is tasked to deal with the situations whatever it takes, even if that means starting a war between the cartels, and he brings in vengeful hitman Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro) to help him.

Sicario (2015)

I remember seeing the trailer to Sicario in cinemas back in 2015 and thinking, "damn, that looks good", then somehow I managed to miss it and for some reason or another I kept putting it off. In the meantime, I watched Hell or High Water and Wind River, both written (and the latter also directed) by Taylor Sheridan and having loved both I figured it'd make sense to check out his first work. Also, this movie is getting a sequel this year and it's basically one of the most anticipated films of the year so, yeah, I had to watch this. 

After surviving an explosion following the discovery of a house with dozens of corpses, idealistic FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) joins a special anti-drugs task force run by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) that operates on the border area between the U.S. and Mexico. With the help of the mysterious Columbian-born Alejandro (Benicio del Toro), their ultimate goal is the capture or kill of cartel boss Manuel Diaz (Bernardo P. Saracino).