Taylor Sheridan’s sequel to one of the best action thrillers ever made was quietly added to streaming this January, and it’s already shooting up the streaming charts. Sheridan might be best known for creating the Paramount shows Yellowstone, Landman, 1923, and a whole host of other Yellowstone spin-offs that are still to come. But the acclaimed screenwriter also lends his talents to the movie industry. He previously penned the scripts for Hell or High Water and Wind River (which he also directed), not to mention Denis Villeneuve’s acclaimed Sicario. But it’s the divisive sequel to that film, 2018’s Sicario: Day of the Soldado, which recently returned to streaming.
Sicario: Day of the Soldado is now streaming on Netflix, and audiences can’t get enough of the Josh Brolin-led action thriller. Sicario: Day of the Soldado is currently the seventh most popular movie on the streamer’s global weekly chart. While Sheridan returned for writing duties on the sequel, Denis Villeneuve moved on to other projects, with Stefano Sollima taking over to direct the sequel. Benicio Del Toro and Jeffrey Donovan returned alongside Josh Brolin’s lovably rogue Matt Graver. The Last of Us‘ Isabela Merced, Catherine Keener, and Matthew Modine also joined the cast.
While the first threw Kate (Emily Blunt) into the US’ war on drugs in Mexico, the sequel puts Matt Graver front and center. After Mexican cartels begin smuggling terrorists into the US, Graver re-teams with the mysterious mercenary Alejandro to kidnap a cartel leader’s daughter. The official synopsis reads:
“FBI agent Matt Graver calls on mysterious operative Alejandro Gillick when Mexican drug cartels start to smuggle terrorists across the U.S. border. The war escalates even further when Alejandro kidnaps a top kingpin’s daughter to deliberately increase the tensions. When the young girl is seen as collateral damage, the two men will determine her fate as they question everything that they are fighting for.”
‘Sicario: Day of the Soldado’ Is a Good Movie, But Nowhere Near the Original
Given that Sicario is one of Denis Villeneuve’s most popular movies (which is saying something, given how beloved the director is), the sequel had a lot to live up to. For the most part, Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a good crime thriller. It scored a 62% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a slightly stronger audience score of 66%. However, that is nowhere near the 91% rating (85% audience score) of the original movie.
The sequel certainly has its fans, like one RT user who wrote, “A masterpiece, just like the first film… Some folks didn’t have the patience to embrace this 2nd piece to the story. But it is beautiful, start to finish.” However, the general consensus stands that Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a weaker movie than the original. The script felt less focused, and much of the subtext and power of the visual cinematic language that made the original Sicario so effective and tense was nowhere to be found in the sequel.
- Release Date
-
June 27, 2018
- Runtime
-
122 minutes
- Director
-
Stefano Sollima
Source link
Add Comment