SICARIO by denis villeneuve, starring emily blunt, benicio del toro and josh brolin

I don’t think the writer thought through the terrorism angle, i guess the dude in the beginning was supposed to be unrelated to the dudes in the store attack? The latter group was from Jersey iirc? It didn’t make sense.

Also i don’t think a mom would do what the mom in the store attack scene did...

xpost. Agreed. Just an unpleasant, unnecessary flick.

the thing that really bugs me about these movies is that they're every bit as comic-booky and ridiculous as a rambo flick but we're expected to view it as something more than an excuse for people getting shot in interesting ways because it's draped in this oppressive olive-drab seriousness where everyone is a morally grey special operative who understands how to hold their weapon for maximum tactical awesomeness

benicio's back story is that he's a mild-mannered lawyer who somehow becomes the world's greatest killing machine after his family is murdered - we're never (iirc) told how this happens

he might as well have been bitten by a radioactive sniper scope for all the attention the movie gives to his transformation ffs

in retrospect so much of my enjoyment of the first movie was the cinematography/musical score gelling during the long overhead shots and underlit action scenes. accepting the entire "emily blunt's character is really there to be their foot in the door" non-twist as the key point of the plot, she's injected into the world of the central body of the film and expelled at the end like an audience member, perfect stand-in

the best part of sicario 2 was the trailer tbh

like c'mon when benicio does that ridiculous move where he's shooting the handgun really fast, that's the shot

yeah, the technical side of these movies is really impressive, i just wish it wasn't in the service of jerking off over the spectacle of hard-bitten men making 'difficult' decisions about murdering people in desperately awful situations

I do get the impression that the core audience isn't people who look at brolin & co. and think "these are the bad guys, too" which is bad

the "he's protecting the kid" narrative device in the second was lazy but adding "also he knows sign language because his murdered child was deaf" was perhaps a bridge too far and I may have stifled an "ahhh, c'mon" during my viewing

in a world... where grizzled men fire adavanced weapons with unheard of speed and accuracy in the pursuit of a hobby... GUN RANGE coming next fall

that was a movie with mark wahlberg iirc

i do get the impression that the core audience isn't people who look at brolin & co. and think "these are the bad guys, too" which is bad

otm - in a way i kinda appreciate that the sequel doesn't make as much of an effort to dress up its core interest in super-cool tactical manshooting in social-commentary drag tho, it's just these two horrible fucks from the first movie doing horrible shit unemcumbered by the presence of emily blunt going 'oooo shit maybe i should do something about this ahh fuck it i'll go along with it just once more'

i have to say, the kid put in a really good performance in the sequel, i liked her a lot

should probably begrudgingly rewatch the sequel when it's on a free streaming platform

looking at the credits, only now remembering that catherine keener was in this. one of the larger issues w/the sequel might have been casting good actors in the government oversight subplot and then giving that part of the script nothing but boilerplate material

bg, i must inform you that the actress that played the kid will be taking on the lead role... in a dora the explorer movie

obvious next step after a sicario film imo

and apparently omar made the same point re: keener/modine on another movies thread!

DORA THE EXPLORER by denis villeneuve, starring isabela moner, benicio del toro and josh brolin

an idealistic seven-year-old latina girl is enlisted by a a talking purple backpack and a red-booted monkey to aid in a whimsical war against drugs at the border area between the u.s. and mexico

I liked how they set up the kid as a fighter and bully, making her more complicated than just an heiress. I'd put these two closer to the Greengrass Bourne movies than boilerplate, but this is a genre where great actors and quality camerawork, editing, sound make me forgive a lot.

xpost - hahaha

the character of the kid who wants to become a sicario is pretty bad. he is a little wary about getting into the gang, i *guess* decides to shoot Benicio in order to...save his own life? no, his cousin was ready to help give him a pass on that. so I guess he really wanted to prove himself? but then he bails from the gang a few minutes before they're killed by Brolin and his crew, he's free and...a year later, he's all tatted up and i guess in the gang? i'm all right with characters have weird motivations and change of heart moments, but when they're in a thinly drawn character played by an actor who's a total blank slate...idk.

can't wait for that kid to be robin to benicio's batman in sicario 3: reqiuem

Sicario 3: So You Want to Be a Sicario

how could anyone have an issue with the sequel its mighty shtuff

nb were there meant to be subtitles we didnt get the subtitles

yeah but no tho

Wrote some of this on the general films thread: I saw Sicario 2 a couple nights ago and I thought it was solid but definitely a little less heightened and odd and mysterious than the first one. Stefano Sollima is good, but the film is definitely closer to Clear and Present Danger in terms of craft and style and even story: lots of government intrigue and failed missions leading to abandoning your people behind enemy lines shit.

The drawback w/having no Emily Blunt is you gotta turn your amoral characters w/murky motives into more moral dudes who question their mission. This isn’t necessarily a drawback but it makes this one a bit cleaner and more black and white than the first.

Del Toro and Brolin are both extremely good, the latter actually in particular. The story is just weirdly paced and as I said in the other thread the gov’t intrigue w/Matthew Modine and Catherine Keener just feels boilerplate.

The action scenes are extremely effective and the central ambush is tense.

If you did not like Sicario I’d say avoid this one though.

― omar little, Sunday, 2 December 2018 20:35 (five months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes this is all otm its good

i dislike when ppl watch a movie and when characters in it do things and we arent told dont do these things the assumption is we are being told to do these things ofc the ppl who do this always make clear they understand themselves not to do these things this is a bad way to watch and think about a movie as murky and goodlooking and confusing and stylish as this, which could not much more obviously be an exercise in execution and look

it’s like rambo iii, but bad