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Sicario
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Sicario

2015
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
2h 1m
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Avg Percentile 62.69% from 5094 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(5094)
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Rated 11 Jan 2016
80
83rd
Excellent cast. Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin all gave great performances. Blunt the dedicated police officer involved in a brutal operation is over her head. Del Toro was amazing as the renegade warrior. Brolin was also a very good undercover agent. The story is sometimes confusing or obfuscated but remained engaging & interesting. Gripping music ads to the excitement. Sometimes jarring pace. Tensions frequently puts you on the edge of your seat. Raw & violent.
Rated 21 Jan 2016
85
94th
Features a house with more corpses than the house from House of 1000 Corpses. Features a border sequence that has more traffic than the movie Traffic. Features a raid with more night vision scenes than the movie Night Visions. I had to look that one up myself. Hey! Wes Craven. I learned something today.
Rated 29 Mar 2016
79
77th
I'm always down for stories that leave me stranded in a mire of ethical dilemmas and moral decay, much akin to a cutesy horse irrevocably sinking into a swamp and oh god only now do I realise I never recovered from my Neverending Story movie trauma... Anyhoo, Sicario got me invested easily, made me wring my hands nervously at times, features great performances but was over too soon, leaving me a bit dissatisfied. Make this a tv show and I can die happy(ish).
Rated 07 Jul 2017
83
91st
This is very good. Dark, bleak and tense, the threat of danger lurks everywhere and there are no real heroes to root for. Villeneuve has put a hopeless, horrifying world up on the screen. Blunt is excellent, strong and capable, but also vulnerable and conflicted when she sees what the "good guys" are up to. Del Toro is great too, materialising malevolently throughout. Perhaps light on story, but beautifully shot, adeptly handled, and with a brooding downbeat score that heightens the atmosphere.
Rated 07 Oct 2015
90
92nd
The musical score accentuates a feeling of DOOM. I was hiding in my popcorn bag by the time the movie was over and an usher almost threw me in the trash.
Rated 22 Sep 2015
80
86th
The man knows how to build tension. Combination of the sweeping scenery, the menacing bass line music and the tight edits, it gets so tense you have to hold your breath. He also knows how to draw amazing performances and there's no better in this than Benicio. The story didn't exactly blow me away but as a film, it's terrific.
Rated 12 Oct 2015
5
91st
On the mundanity of the bureaucratic machinations that guide the deep state in its extra-legal (read: illegal) efforts to violently assert a measure of control over the chaos which it had so large a hand in creating. It's the police procedural as anti-action film, in which violence is portrayed as brutal, brief, efficient, and ugly. Villeneuve's best to date.
Rated 17 Oct 2018
81
78th
In the past, I've been somewhat disappointed with action/thrillers that cater to critics. I've always seen the subgenre in the way Mickey Spillaine defended his own books: "there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar." It's a blue collar genre, so to see such acclaim made me skeptical. But the truth is, "Sicario" is, indeed, good. It's not amazing, but it's easily worth the price of admission. Even if Emily Blunt's straight cop act is a little much.
Rated 25 Oct 2015
80
86th
I'll just "borrow" these spot-on snippets from metacritic for a minute... By Jessica Kiang (The Playlist): "Amazing to look at, amazing to listen to, yet just a bit underwhelming to really think about, Sicario is superlatively strong in every conceivable way except story." By Michael Philips: "Sicario doesn't fall apart in its second half, exactly, but it does settle for less than it should." Done.
Rated 22 Sep 2015
68
66th
Subtle acting, an unsettling score, and cinematography with incredible use of shadow made for a wonderfully tense, paranoiac atmosphere. But if I'm being honest, I had no clue what the heck was going on from start to finish.
Rated 25 Oct 2015
74
72nd
Has some exceptional qualities. Good acting. An amazingly dark and intense atmosphere, building of tension, soundtrack that only increases this even further and cinematography that oozes intensity and realism. However the ending left me feeling dissatisfied, it is too abrupt, too indecisive, too empty. After the great opening scene I was expecting a different film. It's still a good film with some amazing scenes and qualities. But I feel like it could have been even better with a better script.
Rated 15 Mar 2016
64
68th
SPOILERZ: Some movies exist to teach, others to entertain, while some movies exist for the sole purpose of showing us lowly plebs a single miraculous scene. This is one of the latter. I imagine a smoky board room in Hollywood somewhere filled with nervous screenwriters. After a few uncomfortable moments of silence, an executive just folds his hands and says, "I want Benicio del Toro to shoot a dude's kids while they're dining on fajitas," and they had a first draft by lunch.
Rated 08 Aug 2017
94
79th
I found this to be very well-made. The writing was tight and the DVs directing was also quite good. The story seemed like something Michael Mann would have directed, but Villenauve did it well. As many are saying Blunt is really good and so is del Toro. It is slow, but it felt somewhat original and I didn't think it felt like 2 hours. It's for patient viewers but it's worth a watch.
Rated 13 Oct 2015
7
65th
Everything is intensified by the great score and cinematography. Polished, well acted if not missing that little extra story wise that makes a film truly great. Road block scene will be one of 2015's best.
Rated 27 Sep 2015
90
91st
I hope you like feeling like you're in actual, physical danger for 2 hours. I do.
Rated 03 Oct 2015
86
87th
Some of the best acting put to film with some of the very best cinematography ( so much of the visuals will stay with me...particularly the dark scenes towards the end) make for an incredibly engaging film. Blunt may never top this one. Very tense story, very real honest characters and a very honest look at reality.
Rated 02 Oct 2015
75
83rd
The least morally ambiguous morally ambiguous movie ever made.
Rated 21 Sep 2015
75
70th
Score, the cinematography and acting is great, but the story is an ordinary one.
Rated 02 Oct 2015
90
98th
unbelievable cinematography, i couldn't take my eyes off even for a second. deakins was the main storyteller here. which is sort of my only criticism: there's some really weak and clichéd expository dialog where absolutely none was needed (juarez is so bad! you hear that? that ain't firecrackers! welcome to hell! etc.), the mood was already set perfectly by the brilliant audiovisual composition of deakins and johannsson. flawless acting by everyone, too.
Rated 19 Sep 2015
67
15th
Great cinematography, but the plot is sloppy and the Brolin and Del Toro characters become tedious. The makers are too impressed by these tough guys to give them any weakness or inconsistency. We are only granted the self-assured perspective of these two and the naive perspective of Blunt's newbie character. What the Coen brothers do so well, in a similar genre, is to stand outside of the world that their characters inhabit, revealing its absurdity. Sicario errs on the side of fetishisation.
Rated 03 Nov 2015
58
48th
The Mexican drug cartel war has always fascinated me and I had been waiting for movies to be made about it, honestly, hoping for a realistic look inside. Sicario is better than anything I've seen from Villeneuve. It's a generic, conventional modern thriller, but more nerve-racking than most, benefits from a powerhouse Del Toro performance, and recalls Kathryn Bigelow somewhat. It gave me some superficial enjoyment, but it's just too slick and shallow to have what I really look for.
Rated 20 Nov 2015
80
78th
Oh my God, that border/roadblock scene was intense! Villeneuve really knows how to wring tension and moral ambiguity from the hellish and hopelessly complicated nature of the war on drugs. The film is probably less substantial than it aspires to be, but it's so compellingly executed that it almost doesn't matter.
Rated 21 Dec 2015
77
64th
Villeneuve once again displays individual sequences as being greater than the sum of the film's parts, its moments of excellence (traffic jam, underground tunnel sequences) seemingly anomalies in an otherwise fairly straightforward thriller that meditates on the dehumanization of individuals as the result of outside forces (much like what 'Prisoners' aims for). Overall tight direction, but its exploration of such ideas do not go much beyond that of the superficial.
Rated 04 Oct 2015
75
56th
I'm always down for a Denis Villeneuve flick and he doesn't disappoint here. Seriously, get this guy more work, because he's become close to a sure-thing. "Sicario" keeps you engaged and invested in what's going on (and if in nothing or no-one else, Blunt's character herself), but if I'm being honest, I'm not in love with this. I recognize it's good, but I'm not ga-ga. You might be, though! This is totally worth checking out. And that tunnel sequence? Worth the price of admission all by itself.
Rated 17 Jun 2016
75
64th
Reminds me of Zero Dark Thirty, mostly because a female lead is dropped into a masculine setting and forced to navigate through an impossibly large "enemy". A well-made film that doesn't romanticize the violence, but instead offers it as a cautious reminder of how it is truly ugly and brutal.
Rated 03 Oct 2015
95
97th
Brilliant. The music (especially that one drone-y song) just adds to the sense of overwhelming dread that is prevalent and suffocating throughout. Villeneuve lets the camera linger longer on a shot than most directors today, and he made Mexico a genuinely frightening character in itself, where you can't trust anything or anybody. Great performances around (especially my girl Blunt), with an intelligent script. Plus that abrupt ending... oh my god, yes.
Rated 19 Dec 2015
75
71st
Who, what, where, and when? This is what we ask when we watch something like this. The protagonist doesn't even know what is going on. We are taken along for a deep dark heart of darkness journey into cartel land. There is no real explanation at the end..just because. It's because we are living in amoral times where information is limitless but still noticeably absent where it truly matters. The message becomes clear.. FBI Agent Macer is supposed to be us..naive, patriotic, and unwitting.
Rated 19 Jan 2016
84
77th
Great thriller with strong performances that cover over some of the narrative holes. The core is strong and it all fits together as you watch it, which is the most important thing.
Rated 16 Jan 2016
85
87th
Emily Blunt is having a bad couple of days on the job. The story isn't revolutionary, but the insane tension and brooding atmosphere makes for an extremely enjoyable film. Villeneuve may have an impossible name to pronounce, but he is slowly becoming a leader on how to create some serious suspense.
Rated 13 Oct 2015
7
67th
Contrary to some (ex: Judge Holden), I thought the final sequence was the most complex and compelling part of the film. The convergence of the subplot and the main narrative, as well as the concluding allusion to the film's title, brings everything together, allowing the film to differentiate itself from most other white-knuckle thrillers because, ultimately, SICARIO is about the fallout of families disintegrating, and the ending demonstrates this in a powerful way. Del Toro is excellent.
Rated 15 Oct 2015
66
50th
A vastly overqualified cast (from director to DP to lead actors to composer) attempt to elevate a paint-by-the-numbers revenge crime drama script to a moderate success. Sicario is proof that great direction, atmosphere, performances and the like can only get you so far when the screenplay is nothing special. Additionally, the script doesn't play to any actors' strengths with the exception of Benicio del Toro. Overall, I feel underwhelmed with how much talent was involved.
Rated 05 Oct 2015
73
60th
It's a well-made, hard-hitting thriller that doesn't apologize or pander to audiences looking for conventional resolution. Villeneuve's film is tough stuff - as we would come to expect from his work. Where his film could have succeeded further is in keeping Blunt's character at the forefront through the final act. Instead he shifts focus to del Toro which took me out of the story's merits. I do not need to see this film again, nor do I 'recommend' it, but it punches and drains you as intended.
Rated 30 Sep 2015
88
78th
This tense action-thriller is yet another post-9/11 film about heroes creating a weapon to fight distant villains, only to have it turn on them. However, outside of some insight on U.S. crime agency infighting, Sicario doesn't have any profound observations on the drug war. It does, however, do a great job in articulating (in a practical way) the anxieties & fears audiences may have on the drug war. That mood is pitch perfect in the performances (especially Blunt), photography, and music.
Rated 05 Oct 2015
95
97th
I'm predicting this guy Deakins to have a very bright career.
Rated 08 Oct 2015
47
94th
An incredible film. Uses light, shadow, music, and shot composition to deepen the script, instead of relying on long digressions from the characters. The script itself is bare bones (in the best possible way). I don't think there are more than 10 lines that aren't directly related to the ongoing conflicts in the film. No weepy arguments about family or morality. No trite moments of revelation or justice. Just the story, and the characters.
Rated 04 Oct 2015
85
81st
The 1 h is amazing suspence cinema, that even finds moments of political observations, which will probably be very demanding for a lot of viewers, although I loved them being not misleading but simply incomplete. While that lack of information and the soundtrack install an undertow powerful like a tsunami! And than: Blunt is out and Del Toro is in and Sicario becomes a ego-shooter-slaughtering that still has the camera of Roger Deakins but not the drive nor importance of the beginning.
Rated 02 Oct 2015
90
97th
Sicario is a tense thriller with a brain and a message, showcasing the darker side to the war on drugs. Individual moments are filled with so much suspense that you'll struggle to look away from the screen, even though what's being shown is hard to watch. The film strips away any idealism from the war on drugs, painting both sides in varying shades of gray that the movies so often try to force into camps of black or white.
Rated 03 Apr 2016
75
77th
Another fine entry into the annals of "Stay the fuck out of Mexico", and director Denis Villeneuve is by now, a name I need to be able to remember. Ultimately though (and I guess befittingly for a film about the never-ending war on drugs) it ends unresolved and pretty unsatisfying.
Rated 26 Sep 2015
75
51st
More substantial than Zero Dark Thirty, but less so than Silence of the Lambs (all three of which feature cool night-vision scenes), this is a rather good crime-thriller with more than a handful of intense sequences and great acting. It misses out on being something of a masterpiece due to a lack of scope on such an important subject matter, but is certainly uncompromising with its depiction of the ethics involved in American forces in other countries (as well as vengeance as a whole).
Rated 23 Nov 2015
8
78th
Ooh, just give him the Metal Gear franchise already!
Rated 25 Jan 2016
85
79th
Sicario is definitely not a film based on action. It is an incredibly cerebral experience due to its more deliberate pace that makes the supposed black and white War on Drugs a grey area in quite an effective way. Roger Deakins's cinematography makes this film incredibly effective in combination with its on-location shooting. Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro turn in some of the best performances of their respective careers to make this one of the more unflinchingly tough films of this year.
Rated 05 Dec 2017
77
72nd
Beautifully constructed thriller about a moral vacuum inside the war on drugs. It's a brutally familiar story for the 21st century but Villeneuve makes it fresh with elegant style. It has a slight issue of weird out of place "movie dialogue" that keeps popping up at awkward moments breaking the perfection achieved through cinematography & music which are both just brilliant. Also when it switches focus from Blunt's character to Del Toro it goes from subtlety to overstatement. Still a great film.
Rated 19 Oct 2015
75
87th
The cinematic version of a wounded animal. Or if Michael Mann directed 'Traffic'.
Rated 02 Oct 2015
90
96th
Villeneuve is more and more becoming one of my favorite directors. And Sicario is one of the years best. No doubt about that. #3700
Rated 26 Dec 2015
4
55th
electrifying cartel thriller about the uncontrollable, volatile, nasty sprawl of organised crime and the powerlessness, disorientation, marginalisation, horror, despair and above all the identity crises of idealistic minorities fighting it from within a cynical, complicit system. written as clunkily as ZERO DARK THIRTY or PRISONERS, but audiovisually it serves its theme quite spectacularly and the set pieces are gold. also like 0DT, most of its moral detractors seem to have missed the point.
Rated 24 Oct 2015
2
59th
Yet another drawn-out meditation on violence, depravity and fatalism. The problem lies within the script. Newcomer Sheridan didn't have the gusto to make Sicario a true great film. The true strengths in this film are a) Roger Deakins who never ceases to impress me and b)enicio Del Toro, who is on fire and, sad to say, would have been capable of so-much-more if only the script would have been stronger.Sicario shifts from one narrative to the other and ultimately feels disjointed. Decent. No more.
Rated 25 Oct 2015
79
85th
Great movie. Really enjoyed the cinematography in this one. Furthermore, all roles are played really well by their actors. The motivations of the characters are sometimes a bit unbelievable, but this did not bother me too much. Moreover, the script was not really dumb; it was quite good. A really tense movie experience which sucked me right into it.
Rated 03 Oct 2018
75
62nd
As I get older it seems plots are becoming more and more ludicrous. S was beautifully filmed and some scenes were palpably tense, but you have to ask why the CIA picked a conscientious FBI agent as their 'stooge', (rather than someone a bit flakey), as they dont involve her, tell her their target or explain what the hell they are doing; it's a recipe for disaster. But hey ho, when you have bus loads of mexicans who can reveal where secret tunnels are and not fear for their lives, life is good
Rated 21 Oct 2015
85
98th
Visually stunning. The cinematography and the soundtrack are a real treat. Stellar performances. Some faults in writing which can be easily disregarded as the film blows your mind with the way it's shot.
Rated 21 Dec 2015
76
78th
i wasnt expecting such an amateur twist from this director. Cinematography and acting was good and Movie was enjoyable.
Rated 26 Dec 2015
70
89th
A very compelling and well made film, much like Villeneuve's Prisoners, there's always an unnerving sense of doom throughout. Benicio Del Toro commands the room in every scene without having to get angry or scream. The tension created at the dinner table scene is something that all Suspense/Thrillers should strive for.
Rated 17 Jan 2016
74
90th
Excellent pacing and tension help amp up a somewhat thin story line. The barest of motivations and character development is enough to inspire a little investment, and I was rewarded with a sometimes visually stunning urban violence. Del Toro shines and Brolin and Blunt give good performances.
Rated 11 Dec 2017
38
26th
What a bore. Villeneuve constantly tosses us "tense" moments in an attempt to grip us, and trick the viewer into believing there is more to this shallow story. Unless I'm a psychopath, there's nothing tense about a situation where these characters' lives are being endangered. Not when these characters are dull and often times untrustorthy dickheads. Aside from good photography and the brilliantly shot & disappointingly brief tunnel scene, there's nothing here. Sicario is simply put; pretentious.
Rated 18 Sep 2015
95
97th
The acting was phenomenal, the cinematography gorgeous, the action tense, the directing suspenseful, and the score haunting. Brolin is a scene stealing comic relief CIA spook, and nobody knows what the hell Del Toro is, but he is not someone you want to trifle with. Blunt is superb as the moral compass of the film. It's hard to root for the good guys when you don't know who they are.
Rated 28 Sep 2015
86
97th
This is no goodnight fairy-tale for your children. Also there is no hidden US propaganda nor passive feminist message you'd suspect from the trailer. It is just beautifully brutal. (Heavy surround-system required)
Rated 14 Jan 2016
7
68th
A nice bounce back from Enemy but not as good as Prisoners. So jelly of Brolin's facial genetics. He literally has tits and no fat goes to his head. Unbelievable. Del Toro squints his way to another awesome performance and Emily Blunt does an American accent better than anyone in the history of film. It was so refreshing to see women portrayed as women and men portrayed as men for once. Some really intense scenes and it accurately highlights how terrible Mexico is.
Rated 01 Oct 2016
80
77th
Stunning set-piece scenes (traffic, tunnel) stapled together by a solemnly cynical screenplay that made each revelation grimmer yet more apparently practical. The protagonist is dragged along by a supporting cast of stronger characters more hardened by the chaos. Grippingly original in how the protagonist is essentially a perfunctory spectator. Great score/audio.
Rated 19 Dec 2015
72
85th
Low TRAFFIC.
Rated 04 Jan 2016
80
99th
If there is one theme I'm not a big fan of, it's the modern drug war. It's a war without heart and no heroes. But in a brilliant way they make that theme work for Sicario (2015). No bullshitting around! None whatsoever!
Rated 06 Oct 2015
75
73rd
It looks good, the action is good, the acting is good, and it had a unsettled feel all the way through. All around not bad but it felt like it was plodding along through a lot of it. I was expecting more after the opening scene. Still recommended though.
Rated 11 Oct 2015
7
88th
So nerve-wracking and violent that you will be holding your breath and tensing your muscles for the entirety of the movie. The acting and directing -- and especially the cinematography -- are all stellar. A chilling film.
Rated 19 Oct 2015
83
93rd
An incredibly well-shot, edge-of-your-seat suspense thriller that didn't waste any time explaining what exactly was going on.
Rated 07 Oct 2015
98
99th
Interesting plot, good acting, exceptional cinematography and excellent score. The intensity of this movie is also well done. One of my favorite films of the year so far.
Rated 14 Jan 2016
84
83rd
Villeneuve fails to disappoint. Del Toro, Blunt and Brolin are all awesome. Great score, beautiful cinematography.
Rated 08 Jan 2016
9
91st
fucking Benicio del Toro gets cooler and cooler the older he gets
Rated 04 Nov 2015
80
87th
Stunningly photographed. Brilliantly staged action. Iconic performances. A score that growls at your subconscious. A perfectly elicited atmosphere of ambiguity and confusion. Movie of the year in any year that Mad Max Fury Road doesn't come out in.
Rated 10 Jan 2016
79
82nd
The score was the best. It fleshed the mood brilliantly. Nice acting from all the group. In the story there was some sluggish moments because the plot was not exactly for my taste.
Rated 09 Jan 2016
40
10th
I love Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro. Josh Brolin is a good actor too. Despite their good work this movie doesn't let us care about any of the characters. It seems determined not to let us in. On top of that the violence Is so dry it neither entertains nor shocks and disturbs. It's shot well and has some interesting points to make, but it is a boring ride.
Rated 18 Nov 2015
95
97th
This damning portrait of the American "War on Drugs" is an early frontrunner for my favorite movie of 2015. I absolutely loved this. It's breathlessly engaging and incredibly intense throughout, with amazing performances from leads Emily Blunt and (particularly) Benicio del Toro, who should both be nominated come Oscar season if there is any justice. Add on to that some pretty amazing visuals, and I won't be forgetting this one anytime soon.
Rated 30 Dec 2015
15
61st
Sometimes falls into the trap of using typical Hollywood blueprints in terms of dialogue and key plot points yet this does not infer complexity can't be found . This is one hell of an enjoyable film to watch with amazing atmosphere throughout
Rated 20 Jan 2016
82
95th
Villeneuve keeps on raising my expectations and masterfully delivers again with this raw, suspenseful look at the dirty war on drugs. It gives little away to begin with, slowly revealing the brutal power they're up against. We follow a young FBI-agent into a masculine-driven battle, where every move they make is in the grey-zone and the movie asks a lot of questions. Beautifully shot with a mighty soundtrack. Blunt is great and Del Toro certainly gets to shine in some pleasurable final scenes.
Rated 21 Dec 2015
70
72nd
Chaos is order yet undeciphered
Rated 25 Oct 2015
80
37th
Muscular, invigorating filmmaking that blesses us with a couple of the best, most finely constructed and tense sequences of the year. Unfortunately, as a whole, it's muddled and wishy-washy; and maybe that's the point, because there's nothing clear about the drug war itself, but it feels like all of this posturing is supposed to build off to a payoff that never actually comes.
Rated 31 Jul 2017
70
56th
Depressing but definitely worth watching.
Rated 10 Jan 2016
8
76th
Sicario was one of my most anticipated films of 2015 and I watched it in complete awe. Denis Villeneuve continues his stellar run and the overall direction, camerawork, the score and the sound design collaborate masterfully. And Roger Deakins' cinematography is once again nothing short of incredible. Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and of course Benicio Del Toro all impress with commanding performances. The plot & writing is servicible. But this is such an unbearably tense and atmospheric experience.
Rated 14 Oct 2015
80
78th
Surprisingly brilliant. I don't think one can make a better film about Mexican drug cartels.
Rated 23 Sep 2015
83
85th
Fantastically suspenseful and still manages to not revel in the violence but rather look away at times that denies us the satisfaction (which is kinda the point). Really tight script, and excellent acting. Possibly and hopefully a second Oscar for Benicio. Reminiscent at times of the tone in Zero Dark Thirty, but without the overt propaganda.
Rated 20 Apr 2017
5
93rd
A shaken sense of middle-American justice in the true face of a drug war wrought with heavy collateral damage. Cynical and unflinching disposition, intense and straight-faced in its violent depictions, a solemn but not righteously divulged grey-morality piece. A fact-of-the-matter ugliness settles in as Blunt, the moral protagonist, becomes marginal and ineffectual, replaced as the narrative centerpiece by Del Toro in a monolithic performance as the title representation of unbound jurisdiction.
Rated 03 Oct 2018
55
22nd
Emily Blunt is certainly not awful, but distant cinematography and colourless performance-direction fails to engage us with anything but visuals, letting down a unique, exposition-less perspective that could have ridden on the shoulders of an intimate lead. (DNF)
Rated 26 Jun 2016
84
82nd
Absolutely stunning visuals (Roger Deakins is the man) and sound design, carried by great performances across the board. Such a masterclass in creating simmering tension and anxiety that you're almost relieved when the violence finally breaks out. The gravity and complexity of the War on Drugs in Mexico is both Sicario's greatest asset and its biggest weakness.
Rated 20 Dec 2015
69
60th
Cool. Often transporting--those prolonged early sequences in Juarez are tense, well-shot, and terrifying as hell. That third act shift is problematic, though. What was playing like a docudrama with a tough, no-nonsense, pragmatic female lead takes a lurching spin about 90 minutes in and becomes a mean, cold-blooded revenge flick. And that female lead we've been spending time with? Turns out she's a major wimp who can't handle real-world horrors. So, yeah. Cool, but problematic.
Rated 03 Oct 2015
81
90th
Incredibly tense, impeccably shot and directed. It subverts your expectations in both subtle and big ways, all to great effect. And god it's a downer.
Rated 16 Aug 2016
50
9th
Despite its technical excellence and fine acting, Sicario tells an intriguing but unsatisfying story. It defines Emily Blunt's character as the protagonist, gives us something to admire about her, and never really gives her any agency. This film isn't really telling her story; she's being brought along in service to a larger plot that has no protagonist. It works on the micro level, but on the macro level, when it's all over, we're left feeling kind of empty.
Rated 03 Nov 2016
74
90th
Sicario is a surprisingly enjoyable film given the subject matter. The film pairs the cinematography of stark landscapes with the tension-building drums and strings in the soundtrack. Not only is the tone perfect, but the entire cast deliver fantastic (and at times muted) performances. Sicario's narrative is also refreshing, portraying a world submerged in grey-areas. While it presents its interpretation, the film isn't pushy and allows the viewer to ultimately decide what is right and wrong.
Rated 01 Nov 2015
46
48th
Good performances, great soundtrack and superb photography, but I found the script with its unconventional positioning of the protagonist too irritating. The role as written for Blunt remains unconvincing.
Rated 12 Oct 2015
81
79th
Hell ya
Rated 20 Dec 2015
80
70th
For mine, this hits a similar tone to the undervalued, The Counselor by McCarthy & Scott. That was the film Scott made immediately following the death of his brother and it was a morally empty look into the workings of the Cartel with more leaning on the script than Sicario does, and for Sicario, that is to good effect. The lack of script keeps us engaged & like Brolin says, just soak it up like a sponge. I mean, things got a bit too poetic for Toro's character, but I bought how he got there.
Rated 30 Oct 2015
90
87th
Really interesting movie, one of the best I've seen in this "plausibly realistic fictionalized version of actual espi-arfare" genre, whatever they call that.
Rated 14 Dec 2015
85
88th
Tense as hell. Manages the difficult job of making violence terrifying and un-glamorous but still keep you invested.
Rated 31 Jul 2016
65
61st
Everyone in this film works their asses off to elevate a rather ho-hum script -- and it shows. Del Toro, Brolin, and Blunt are all fantastic in their roles, and the directing, score, and cinematography contribute incredibly well to the feeling of what these characters are going through. That being said, it just isn't too interesting of a film. Blunt's character is dragged from one crummy moment to the next and it really doesn't lead anywhere significant.
Rated 19 Dec 2015
76
82nd
Very atmospheric. Very slow. Very long. Very arthousy. Very much style over very much less substance. Very, very good. Very great performance by del Toro. Very cool score. Very likely Emily Blunt's best performance to date.
Rated 05 Feb 2018
93
95th
In this movie everybody is a hitman and few are righteous. The atmosphere created by the score and cinematography is incredible, the tension is almost tangible.
Rated 08 Jan 2016
60
52nd
maybe rewatch ?
Rated 18 Apr 2016
55
42nd
I'm torn, because it's an enrapturing movie with gorgeous cinematography, a tense score, & a gripping plot. However, I was incredibly disappointed with the questionably misogynist function that Blunt's character plays. While initially given agency & shown as capable, she spends the entire movie being undercut, talked at, or abused by men. I was under the impression that her character was empowering (like in Edge of Tomorrow), but she's written into a corner. http://bit.ly/1Mudnlr puts it better.
Rated 08 Jan 2016
95
99th
Denis Villeneuve continues to make films of the highest calibre. From the opening scene to the end credits this is a masterclass in suspenseful, stylish film making. The cinematography is striking, the editing precise but unobtrusive, and the music is highly effective at increasing the sense of impending doom. Performances across the board are excellent. Thrillers don't get much better than this. Film of the year.
Rated 13 Jan 2016
77
80th
Compellingly emphasizing the meaninglessness of the never-ending war on drugs. -- Thrilling and momentous.
Rated 16 Dec 2016
80
73rd
Some awesome action sequences and cerebral tension help to elevate Sicario to the level of a great movie, but its plot can often be held back by its slow burn narrative which may have benefitted from being a bit more focused. That being said, its a great show of Villeneuve's work.
Rated 24 Feb 2017
80
84th
After being subjected to a full range of inane children's films on behalf of fatherdom recently this thoroughly grown up and tense thriller came as welcome relief! To be critical I'm not sure how well 'Sicario' divided up its time between the two central protagonists, but that aside there's little to gripe about. All the leads are very fine, the sound and score are fantastic and visually it's highly admirable . Foreboding and fraught stuff.
Rated 21 Oct 2015
84
93rd
Unbelievable cinematography and score put this over the top, but also a very good and unique script as well.
Rated 11 Oct 2015
81
83rd
Based on the title alone, I should have known the film would narrow down on one character, but I was still disappointed when it did. Still amazing in most other ways.

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