TonyWatchesMovies Movie Review: Sicario: 9.5 out of 10

Summary;

"Sicario", directed by Dennis Villeneuve, follows the story of FBI agent Kate Mercer (Emily Blunt) as she joins a task force headed by a secretive government official Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) to combat the increasingly bloody war on drugs between the American and Mexican border. She is forced to team up with the intensly mysterious Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) to flush out the heads of the largest drug cartel in Mexico. What Kate realizes along the way is that the world of the cartel is a brutal and unforgiving one, and that her companions will do whatever it takes, even the breaking of international jurisdiction laws to achieve their goals (some of which differing from the mission as a whole).

TonyWatchesMovies Rating; 9.5/10

Tony's Review (CAUTION; SPOILER TERRITORY);

"Sicario" by far has been the most compelling movie I have watched in a good long while. While most stories tend to focus on non-stop action and cheap thrills to keep their audience seated, Sicario uses an incredible story and stunning performances to keep the audience member watching. We are first introduced to the brutality and the horror that is the cartel during the first half hour of the film, where the FBI raid a supposed cartel safehouse and find dozens of bodies buried in the walls. Within those first several shots we are not only shown in painstaking detail this gruesome world, but we are also shown what the tone of this movie is, and by far this movie gave an overwhelming sense of eeriness and suspense to me.

Then, the story takes a much needed break as we are introduced to the main characters; Kate Mercer, the aforementioned FBI agent, Matt Graver, who's job is never clearly defined, and Alejandro who, through many subtle and not-so-subtle hints, shows us that he is the haunted and vengeful antihero. Matt hires Kate to be a part of a special task force which targets the Mexican drug cartel and Kate, wishing to confront the perpetrators head on, agrees to join said task force. On their way to Texas, Kate meets Alejandro and learns from Matt that the two are to work together in the field. However, Kate has some reservations because of her lack of knowledge concerning the backgrounds and the personal goals/vendettas of the pair of them, and her concerns grow as she quickly learns that the battle will not take place just in Texas, as she was told, but they will be going straight into Mexico and away from American jurisdiction. From here, Kate is pulled into a rollercoaster of bloody and brutal events that she has very little control of, and above it all, pulling the strings are Matt and Alejandro, using her FBI connections to suit their own ends.

I've read many critiques on the movie, and a lot of them mention that the movie feels as though it is in two pieces, but I actually liked it that way. The first piece gave you the setup for the characters and the storyline as well as the horror and brutality of the mexican drug cartel, and the second piece dealt directly with the characters' personal lives and problems, which I felt deserved the kind of separation that many critics felt.

Overall, Sicario was an incredible movie, and certainly one to add to your collection.

Cheers,

-TonyWatchesMovies