Sicario [Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD]

This movie could be subtitled: The Spook, The Ghost and The F.B.I. Agent. Don't let that subtitle fool you: it is a very scary but sincere movie about the drug war. I agree with some of the criticism about Emily Blunt that she plays a very flimsy character, she's not as strong as she was in Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise, but this is a very different movie too. Yet this female agent, she plays, catches on very fast and realizes quickly that she is being isolated from the op and treated indiferently. And I enjoyed this movie a great deal mainly because of her. I've notice her before in films: she is fun to watch but only if you appreciate good acting. And yes, the movie has some faults with it, mainly with the dialogue: it's hard to hear everything being said, and some of the lines doesn't seem to make any connections with one another, and there's the overuse of abbreviations: such as D.O.D, D.O.J, and A.I.C. (A.I.C. by the way stands for Army Intelligence Command.) But a badly made movie can go very badly very quickly right from the beginning where people would shut it off or walk out of the theater. What really saved this was Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro and the interaction between them. These two are some of the best facial-expression artists in Hollywood today. And their characters are each being treated indifferently in their own special way. Yet they clash with one another, emotionally, and almost brutally without doing any real harm. And speaking of flimsy, it's Benicio Del Toro's character's strong presence that makes everyone else around him look weak or odd. That's because Benicio Del Toro plays The Ghost. A very dangerous man (protected by higher powers) is commonly referred to as a "ghost" in Spanish culture because they move with such ease at night, and when one attacks they leave everyone dead in their wake. Such as Geronimo, so named by the Mexicans in his day because he snuck in bandit camps and killed quietly. Knowing this about The Ghost he plays one can appreciate the interaction between him and Emily Blunt's character toward the end. As weak and flimsy as she is, she makes him feel like a man for once, and he hasn't felt that way in a very long time. With that being said, he also wants her out of his way. Right from the start, Emily Blunt's character, Kate, realizes quickly she is being isolated from the op the moment she steps in the private jet and Josh Brolin's character, Matt, lies down: the so called D.O.D Adviser. Where she thought she was going to be apart of a very important mission she starts to second guess why she's there. Del Toro's character, Alejandro, scared her the moment he stepped into the plane. If that was an agent being pulled from the field, like her bosses had told her, he was one very scary dude. Unlike Matt, he didn't lie down to go to sleep, he sat up and alert. He was also better dressed than Matt, and when it comes to dress, women notices everything: this was no ordinary agent. I have to give Emily Blunt a five star performance because everything you need to know about those two men came across her face, brilliantly. But why were these two men treating her differently? She 's an F.B.I Agent, was it because she was a woman? Yet, being a woman, she is picking up on everything around her and she caught Alejandro in a moment of weakness when he woke suddenly from a nightmare and scared the bejesus out of her. If the plane wasn't in the air, she would have most likely jumped off: she was truly frighten. But she also had the womanly ability and charm to calm him as he suddenly woke and looked around, trying to figure out where he was at. Everything you need to know about those three people and the mission was brilliantly played out on the jet and the facial-expressions of Del Toro's character, Alejandro, and Emily Blunt's character, Kate. And right away she knew everything around her was way over her head. All that was reenforced at the briefing at A.I.C. She was surrounded by law enforcement yet none of the men wanted to know who she was or why she was there. In fact, when they broke from the meeting, the men damn near walked over her and she felt small, weak and useless. They also avoided Alejandro: instead of joking around with the likes of Matt, and walking over Kate, they walked clear around him. The only two who were left were her and him. But at least Alejandro didn't try to lie to her, and when she discovered he didn't come from the field but Colombia, she knew, as a F.B.I Agent, there were only two things that came out that country: drug lords and murderers. Right away, Kate questioned who she thought was her boss, Matt, and asked if both of them were C.I.A. Her direct confrontation clearly caught Matt off guard. Matt did lie to her telling her both were D.O.D Advisers but she refuse to believe a very scary guy like Alejandro -- whom well-armed policemen walked clear around, was anything but a well-paid, well-dressed, murderer. That fear was reenforced at the bridge: she was so scared she jumped from one seat to the other in the van when Matt told the men to go get those guys in the cars and Alejandro shot with no hesitation and killed unmercifully. When they came back to the Army base, Kate had to catch her breathe, getting out of the van, and once again jumped all over Matt and called him a "spook" right to his face. But who in the hell is that? referring to Alejandro. Yet the beauty of the film, while Matt kept lying to her, Alejandro kept treating her with the up most respect and went out of his way to protect her, not once but twice, for what she did for him in the plane: calming him when he came out of his nightmare that one wonders: if she hadn't been there on the jet, when he was suddenly jerked from that really bad dream back to reality, would Alejandro have pulled out his gun and start shooting at phantoms all around him? That respect Alejandro had for Kate kept building into the picture, and the relationship between the two kept moving into a love for one another starting in the bathroom scene: the two were having a conversation with each other like a husband and wife might have. And the director leaves that impression on us the two could easily fall in love but couldn't because who they are in relations to law and the ongoing drug war. By the way, the second time he saved her was near the last scene. After Kate went up "the wrong tunnel" and caught Alejandro kidnapping a Mexican cop, he shot her equipment which made her fall. Alejandro told her "to catch her breathe and get back up there." Which she did, almost like a dutiful wife. In fact, Kate was catching her breathe a lot in this movie because she was way over her head in something that she didn't quiet understand that it was scaring the hell out of her at every turn. Going by the book, like good agent, wasn't helping her in any way, shape or form. Alejandro told her early on to "keep an eye on the time" -- time, being, the one true factor in this film. Instead, she found herself stumbling out of the "house of horrors", coughing and gagging; took a crazy ride in and out of the belly of "the beast", bumped into a "spook", ghost, and cops on-the-take who clearly wanted to kill her. Not to mention her trusted partner took her to the "Wild Pony" where she suddenly found herself surrounded by cowboys that she didn't really know were there. Even her long-time partner was a cowboy. Time was the one thing she wasn't paying any attention to. Even Matt threaten her in a ditch, that resembled a grave, she was standing in, and told her it would be a mistake if she went public about their mission. And if wasn't for Alejandro she would probably already be dead in that grave-looking ditch. But no one was touching Kate, not even the C.I.A. When Alejandro was through with his mission, he came back with the paper Matt needed to be signed that "everything went by the book" and warned her "not to stand on balconies" for a while. And although Alejandro pointed a gun at her to get her to sign that form, he had no intention of killing her. He so loved and respected her, he gently wiped the tears of fright from her face, and Kate, again, like a dutiful wife, reluctantly signed it. Black eyed and used, she sat there in the dark for while. With all that to consider in this film, what did you make of that last scene between them? Kate standing on the balcony and Alejandro below her looking up. Did that remind you of a classic story in some odd way? It certainly wasn't "by the book" of Shakespeare with her beaten, bruised, used, scared out of her wits, with a gun in her hand. To me, anyway, it was emphasizing this was also a classic lecture to those still hooked on drugs. I know there's a lot of boos and thumps down on this movie, but the acting is so very good, you can't miss it. The movie also has a strong message and when there is a message buried in a film like this it generally takes a few more looks at it in order to uncover the truth and how it all fits together. You may not know what's really going on at first, but all you really have to do is watch Emily Blunt's reaction to everything. This is probably hers and Del Toro's best work yet. I do hope they make a part two. Please. I love these actors.

Sicario is a very intense and well-made thriller with great acting and a strong story. The Blu-ray version looks excellent with sharp picture quality and great sound during the action scenes. It’s also nice that the set includes the DVD and Digital HD copy for different ways to watch. Definitely a great movie to have in a collection.

SICARIO This is by far one of my favorite films ever and made me a huge fan of writer Taylor Sheridan. When the trailer was released I thought that this looked like a pretty good flick. It also helped that I noticed my boy Jeffrey Donovan from “Burn Notice” was in it so I was about it. I was wrong, it was not a pretty good flick, it was excellent. So I bought the Blu-Ray of course when it was released. The film follows F.B.I. Special Agent Kate Macer [Emily Blunt] as she is brought on board by the C.I.A. To be apart of a special task force going after cartels. She learns how brutal and hard that the mission is and her part in it, one she does not like or appreciate. The violence that cartels use everyday in every way is put back on them twofold by this task force and the assassin who is apart of it. As she learns. This movie is outstanding and one of my favorites, writer Sheridan did an excellent job here in his debut. Director Denis Villeneuve [“Dune”] did a marvelous job here as well as he did with the film “Prisoners”. The acting is amazing as well here from Blunt and Donovan as I have already mentioned but especially from Benicio Del Toro as the assassin and Josh Brolin as the lead C.I.A. Agent, both are excellent here. The Blu-Ray has some great behind the scenes features but I really wish there would have been a commentary from the Director and or the Writer. Still this is an excellent film and a classic in my opinion.

Who is Emily Blunt that she gets to wreck a really interesting movie? Briefly, the premise of Sicario is that our war on drugs now involves secret incursions into Mexico to kidnap and assassinate cartel leaders and in general create chaos in their operations. These ops are conducted by the CIA but at arms-length using third party contractors, and the twist is that the CIA is not legally allowed to operate within the U.S. unless by association with an American agency, in this case, the F.B.I. which is represented in the film by agents Emily Blunt and one unmemorable black guy who is not credible as a lawyer and is only there for exposition purposes, and to drive the car. Maybe Blunt can't drive? On to the good stuff. Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro play the world-weary middle-aged "operators" who run the mission, flying out of Air Force bases on private jets and having all kinds of access to drones and computer geeks and guys in suits who give them whatever they want. They are both really good (with the warning that you really don't want to see Josh Brolin with his shirt off. Just trust me) which is surprising because I have never taken Brolin seriously in anything. Can you say lightweight? But here he is perfect as the friendly spook who keeps nominal peace between the FBI and the spooks. BDelT (I wanted to call him BLT, but I won't) is the dark and stormy heavyweight who wears his gravitas like a a comfortable sweat suit. The film is worth seeing just for him. The plot twists are good. The intention (in my opinion) is to present both sides of the moral argument that either America should follow it's own laws no matter what (as represented by Blunt and her partner) or, the war on drugs is so serious and we are losing it so badly that we are justified in doing whatever is necessary, and I mean WHATEVER, screw the subpoenas. Blunt gets "used" by the big boys in lots of ways, and it is all supposed to be for the greater good. This is good film making. Villeneuve (a Canadian, ironically, whose previous work "Butt" about smuggling cigarettes across an Indian reservation on the Quebec/American border is a Canadian classic) does a great job both visually and narratively. The story is presented pretty even-handedly, except Blunt has so little credibility in her job, it wrecks your concentration to follow the plot. She's like Matt Damon in an action movie - you just go "huh?" Message to Hollywood: Emily Blunt is NOT Mrs. Peel. She is NOT Diana Rigg. (like anyone is). Don't go there ever again. Maybe she can do other stuff, but not this. She is scrawnier than a chewed up chicken wing, not convincing as smart, strange looking and all her character does is act indignant and morally superior to the dregs of the CIA around her. I thought the blonde in the last year of 24 (the London ones) was bad. She is freaking Shakespeare compared to Emily Blunt. If this was an average movie I wouldn't make such a big deal about it, but it had the potential for greatness and she pretty much wrecks that. Still worth watching so you can make up your own mind, espesh for del Toro. The moral issues about the drug war are really well laid out, especially with an election looming. Finally, no one who watches this movie will ever go to Mexico on vacation. Ever. And finally, finally, the last shot really blows it. Kids playing soccer in a field in Juarez. Fake because they react to distant gunfire. In real life, they wouldn't even notice. Ever been to Juarez? I have. It's a two diaper town, for sure.

Excellent movie.

Contra one reviewer: there really have been times & places in Mexico where bodies were hung from overpasses on a regular basis. There has been appalling violence in some areas of Mexico: the illegal drug trade should be boycotted by all Americans. *Some minor plot spoilers.* I share in the complaints about the character played by Emily Blunt (who always acts well). The film poses the difficult issue of what does a country do in the face of appalling violence when the legal means simply do not work. She’s a plot device to put forth the *follow the law anyway* argument: but her actions are incoherent. So is there really no coherent way to make the point? The movie starts off with a hostage rescue under her command, but it’s a false alarm: there are no hostages! And yet the entry is made by using a military-type vehicle to knock down a wall! And they all pile out with full military-type gear! And she machine guns down a man (trying to kill her)! It turns out that this militaristic approach was fully justified, so why is she then so freaked out when a convoy transporting a major drug kingpin was attacked by 8 gang-bangers—some with automatic weapons—and those transporting the prisoner defended themselves? Self defense is not “illegal”, and had they not acted quickly many innocent civilians would have been killed by stray bullets. And why did she then protest that she was not a “soldier” when she acted exactly like one just a few days before? If she is so “by the book” why did she regularly disobey orders? If she is so opposed to action in Mexico, why does she go into Mexico and point her gun at her own team member and give him orders? What was her authority to do so—going by her own theory? Her character does illustrate one important point: if you don’t know a man well enough to know that he’s working for a cartel, and intends to kill you, don’t decide to have casual sex with him. Casual sex is irrational.

For one reason or another, Denis Villeneuve's movies always stay with me. I might take a pass on the "Dune" epics, but "Arrival" cemented my admiration for his work. I had seen "Sicario", but did not recall that he had directed it. Seeing it again, I am reminded that it was Benicio del Toro's and Emily Blunt's performances that originally stayed with me. But the fine points of visual storytelling dovetail with what I like so much about Villeneuve's other movies. Emily Blunt is yet another UK native who nails US speech -- you'd never know she is British. A great movie, more timely than ever.

I read (and commented) on some of the other reviews here and felt compelled to state some things. Firstly, some audience analysis: The one-star reviewers shared some common traits, they either wanted a fast-paced action thriller instead of a thought-provoking story--which is appreciable, but in no way merits their horrid reviews--or they didn't like the violence or didn't understand the themes and concepts behind the story. That being said, this is one of my favorite movies of all time because of the depth and richness of its story-telling combined with the salience of our modern political reality. The point of the movie was to show that the prototypical good guy way of enforcing the war on drugs as it's sold to the American public is a fantasy. "The goal-posts have been moved," as it was said in the movie. By my analysis, Blunt's character represents the by-the-book law enforcement approach, while Brolin's character represents the by-any-means-necessary approach. Del Toro's character is likely the most complex and represents the ebb and flow of violence and power that envelopes the entire world of the cartels. But most importantly, the development of Blunt's character takes center-stage. She is the good guy, she wants to save the world, catch the bad guys, and do it all by the book. What she finds is that the world doesn't allow for unerring virtue and the utter destruction of evil simultaneously. She was dragged down into the darkness and filthy reality of war; she was shown that you can't descend into the muck and purify it without coming out battered, bruised, bloodied, and covered in some of that same muck. You can extrapolate political statements from this movie's message that could be taken either way, so I'll reserve my own views for other venues, but I hope that others who have similarly enjoyed this production have also been compelled to think about the subject matter. Tl;dr: Don't listen to the bad reviews, this movie is great and thought-provoking.

te engancha desde el principio.el sonido es increible.buenas interpretaciones.segun tengo entendido desean hace una segunda parte por el exito recaudado

This is an absolutely jaw dropping 4K release. Mastered from a native 4K DI, the level of detail in the image is like a sensory overload. But it’s the high dynamic range that gives this release an overwhelming edge over the 1080p HD Blu Ray - gone are the murky shadows, and they are instead replaced by shadow delineation that is breathtaking to watch. Take for instance the scene where two characters are watching a firefight in Juarez from the roof of a building at dusk. The light filtering through from the sun just over the horizon cuts across the scene to give the image clarity. This is lost in the 1080p HD Blu Ray and all you get are dark shapes and explosions. If you are a fan of this film, this is a must own release to get the most out of the gorgeous photography, which just adds a whole new dimension to the viewing experience.

日本で販売しているものには英語字幕がなかったのでこちらから購入しました。届くまで一カ月近くかかるとのことでしたが半月程で来ました。包装紙のよれよれは当たり前ですがしかし値段も安く、また中身がキレイだったので大変満足しています。

First, let me say that I don’t look for this genre usually, I just watched it on a platform cause I could not find anything else that night . Although it is not the genre that I enjoy the most, I just could not let go on it. Now, let’s talk about the movie itself. For one, it is NOT base on a true story. But it DOES described (and pretty well) the situation, the plots and behavior of both side of the US-Mexico border of the time. It is not a true story, but it is so realistic that it could be one. In other words, they did not invented the story or exaggerated about what was truly happening there at the time. I’m not intending to give any spoilers here. If you want to know, look at it. This said, if I’m not really interested about the genre, why I kept watching it ?... Well, I was amazed by the image, the plot, the actors and the pace of the movie. Surprisingly, before watching it, I did not bother to look at the director’s name. Today, I know why I was so “glued” on it : Sicario signature is Denis Villeneuve... once again ! Without any hesitation, I bought the second one, the sequel. It was pretty good, but it could not match Villeneuve’s touch. Since, I have read that the producers are trying to get him back for the third and final installment. Ok, whatever what will happen, I already decided that I will get that third movie. But god knows how I wish that Villeneuve will be the director of it. No wonder why he is the most wanted director now, he’s a genius. For Sicario and Villeneuve, it’s a very well deserved five starts.

Me encanta el sr del toro, buena pelicula. Recomendable si te gusta este genero