Category: Thriller

The Guilty

Directed by: Gustav Möller

Screenplay by: Gustav Möller & Emil Nygaard Albertsen

Produced by: Lina Flint

Starring: Jakob Cedergren, Johan Olsen, Jessica Dinnage, Omar Shargawi, Jacob Hauberg Lohmann, Katinka Evers-Jahnsen.

2018 Sundance Film Festival

WINNER: World Cinema Dramatic – Audience Award

Opening on a blank screen, the phone rings.

Asgar (Jakob Cedergren) answers, ‘Emergency Services.’

Set entirely in the room housing the work spaces for those answering and directing the urgent calls incoming, the film focuses on the mysterious Asgar as he shows the classic signs of burn-out: a short temper, the wringing of hands as he attempts to help yet another drunk and abusive caller.

When he receives the call from Iben (Jessica Dinnage) he soon realises she’s been kidnaped, as she pretends to be calling her young daughter while Asgar attempts to find out where she is to send help.

The jaded Asgar comes to life as the tension rises – he makes a promise to Iben’s daughter he’ll get her mother home, even if he has to go off-book to help her.

But there’s something not right with Asgar.

He says he’s a protector, ‘We protect people who need help.’

He’s also a mystery.

The Guilty is a tense psychological thriller as we’re taken down a dark road of murder, fear and the frustration of being on the end of the phone trying to get to the person on the other side.

Director Gustav Möller states, ‘I believe that the strongest images in film, the ones that stay with you the longest; they are the ones, you don’t see.’

Möller has used this concept to build the suspense and mystery as Asgar tries to piece together the crime unfolding on the other end of the line.

We don’t see the crime; what we see is the warning of a red light switching on when the call is taken; the staring into space as aspirin dissolves into bubbles; the ringing of hands as they shake.

The silence is broken by the phone ringing, the soundtrack of the film, as the mystery of the caller and Asgar are revealed like, ‘A big blue silence.’

This is a gripping film that’s more a character-driven story who’s mystery is revealed in the suspense of solving a crime we can’t see.  What we hear is the fear in a voice, a knocking on a door, the traffic in the background and the sound of tyres on a road taking the unwilling somewhere Asgar needs to find out if he’s going to save the person on the other side of the call.

Greta

Rated: MA15+Greta

Directed by: Neil Jordan

Written by: Neil Jordan, Ray Wright

Produced by: James Flynn, Lawrence Bender, John Penotti

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Chlöe Grace Moretz, Maika Monroe.

Like the ominous drone of a train running through the tunnels of the New York City subway, Greta is all about the darkness that runs beneath the surface.

Frances (Chlöe Grace Moretz) has that newly-arrived innocence.  She hasn’t been bitten by the nasty of New York.  Originally from Boston, she lives with her best friend Erica (Maika Monroe (It Follows (2015)) in her loft.

Frances still believes in doing the right thing.  Until she meets Greta (Isabelle Huppert).

Greta has thought of the perfect ruse, preying on the kindness of ‘suckers’: she leaves a green leather bag on the train with an identity card, amongst other convincing paraphernalia, noting her address.

So when Frances finds the bag (and Lost and Found is closed – but would they be closed all the time?  I wasn’t entirely convinced…), she takes the bag back to the rightful owner – much to the disgrace of Erica: ‘This city’s going to eat you alive’.

A telling statement for what’s to come.

The kindness of the older French woman, Greta, seems to fill a hole in Frances’ life; to become the mother figure that’s missing after the death of her mother the year before.

But Greta is sticky.

And as the worldly-wise Erica says, The more persistent, the more crazy.

Writer and director Neil Jordan, ‘saw GRETA as a story about obsession. Every friendship begins with a promise of sorts, he believes: “‘I’ll be your friend if you’ll be mine. We’ll share things. I’ll tell you about my life, if you tell me about yours.’ If those little gestures are used in a malevolent way it becomes kind of terrifying.’

Greta feels like a classic style of psychological thriller, such as the stalking films, Misery (1990) and Fatal Attraction (1987); but with the older crazy woman being the seductress of a young girl.  Greta invades the life of Frances, demanding everything like an obsessed lover.

Isabelle Huppert, ‘interpreted the script as an ambiguous love story.’

And the closeup camerawork make the most of Chlöe Graces’ (as Frances) pretty face that adds to that strange dynamic of: Surrogate daughter? Friend? Lover?

But I’m not sure why this dynamic didn’t quite resonate with me – the idea of the trap is clever.

As is the splicing and camerawork of the descent of Frances’ capture.

There’s this strange brevity from Isabelle Huppert as Greta, her clever euphemisms and light dancing of stockinged feet giving Greta more dimension than just crazy.

I believed the kindness and intelligence more than the psychopathic nature of her character.

And I think this is because the depth of psychology or explanation wasn’t explored – why was Greta crazy?

And what happened to her husband?

Not the psychological thriller I was hoping for but there’s some clever here with some tense and surprising moments.

Cold Pursuit

Rated: MA15+Cold Pursuit

Directed by: Hans Petter Moland

Screenplay by: Frank Baldwin

Based on the Movie, ‘Kraftidioten’ Written by: Kim Fupz Aakeson

Produced by: Michael Shamberg p.g.a, Ameet Shukla p.g.a

Starring: Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum, Laura Dern, John Doman, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, Gus Halper, Micheál Richardson, Michael Eklund, Bradley Stryker, Wesley Macinnes, Nicholas Holmes, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Michael Adamthwaite, William Forsythe, Elizabeth Thai, David O’Hara, Raoul Trujillo, Nathaniel Arcand, Glen Gould, Mitchell Saddleback, Christopher Logan, Arnold Pinnock and Ben Cotton.

An English remake of the Norwegian film, In Order of Disappearance (Kraftidioten) (2014), we certainly see a lot of people get, disappeared.

Set in the snowy mountains of Kehoe, Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) has just won the Citizen of the Year award.

He’s a simple, family man.  He plows snow so others can get to where they need to be. In his speech he says he was lucky, he picked a good road early and stayed on it.

Until his son is killed by drug dealers.

Cold Pursuit is a bloody revenge film filled with gangsters with names like: The Eskimo, Speedo and Wingman…  Because, well, it’s a gangster thing.

There’s this quirky dark humour where small-town cop Gip (John Doman) thinks drugs should be legalised – to give the people what they want, tax the shit out of it, so the government can double the cops’ pay.

But more than that, the sheer number of people who get killed (see the number of actors cast above) and how they get killed, is… funny.

There are so many funny moments that mostly hit the mark and sometimes don’t.  Pink phones and rubber ducks didn’t quite make it for me.

But added details like the plush hotel with the white fake fur reception desk getting a buff and brush, tickled.

What I realised as the film progressed was the presence of Liam Neeson as the main character, and the clever way director, Hans Petter Moland, uses Neeson’s gravitas for comic effect.

I really like Neeson in this film: still the hero, still the family man – like we’ve seen so many times before – but all that history he owns in that hero-family-man role is used to add another layer to the film.

A revenge, shoot-em-up movie with elements of gangster turned on its head with a super-food conscious villain (AKA Viking), a Thai ball-breaker wife making a tropical paradise in the middle of snowy mountains, a profile-in-pink drug dealer who also sells wedding dresses and drug dealing Native Americans who adore wearing mustard yellow gloves.

Sure the humour is laid on a bit thick and tried too hard at times, but the balance of action, drama, violence and those gallows-humour, ticklish moments made for a (mostly) great entertainer.

Got to say, Liam Neeson’s still got it.

Mile 22

Rated: MA15+Mile 22

Directed by: Peter Berg

Screenplay by: Lea Carpenter

Story by: Lea Carpenter and Graham Roland

Produced by: Mark Wahlberg, p.g.a. Stephen Levinson, p.g.a, Peter Berg, p.g.a

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Iko Uwais, John Malkovich, Ronda Rousey, Carlo Albán, Natasha Goubskaya, Chae Rin Lee, Sam Medina, Keith Arthur Bolden, Jenique Hendrix, Billy Smith, Myke Holmes, Emily Skeggs, Terry Kinney, Brandon Scales, Poorna Jagannathan, Peter Berg, Elle Graham and Nikolai Nikolaeff.

There’s no holding back in this action packed, political spy-thriller.

With blood and high-tech computer-based espionage shown through images captured by drones circling the sky and hand-held cam shots up close to see the visceral, at times, cringe worthy throat-cutting on gagged windows action (yeah, ouch!) – I was completely enthralled with this intelligent and believable military operation.

Based on the paramilitary unit within the CIA’s Special Activity Division, Ground Branch, James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) is team leader of Overwatch, a quick reaction force activated by ranking officer, Bishop (John Malkovich) when radioactive powder disks used to make dirty bombs go missing.

When a double agent forces his way to the American Embassy in South East Asia (fictional country of Indocarr) claiming to have intel on where the powder is located, the team must get Li Noor (Iko Uwais) to the airstrip for safe evacuation before he’ll give up the codes to access the intel, all while enemies stop at nothing to take the team down.

Although an action movie, there’s a lot of focus on character.

Opening on with Jimmy’s, (James Silva) background as an orphaned gifted-child, the film paces through his history like flicking through a deck of playing cards.

And the whole movie flies, each scene getting more bloody as the plot adds layer upon layer while Child 1, AKA Silva throws out statements like, ‘No birthday cake!’ while constantly flicking an elastic band on his wrist, the shock of pain supposed to keep his temper in check, but mostly adding a disturbing smack to his words – an indication of explosive violence barely held in check: brilliant.

Director Peter Berg loves his action thrillers his last three based on true stories (think: Patriots Day, Lone Survivor, Deepwater).  Here he returns once again collaborating with Wahlberg, this time making a film from fiction from first time screenwriter, Lea Carpenter.

I’d love to see more writing from Carpenter.  And seeing Wahlberg as an arse hole was gold: he’s so nasty it’s funny.

All the characters here were bad-arse, with Alice (Lauren Cohan) as a mother dealing with her ‘fuck wit’ ex as tough as the rest, the threat of I’ll go get, ‘a sledgehammer and ice axe and fuck you up’, a believable statement.

Violent, hard-arsed characters in action flicks can feel try-hard but not here.

And Indonesian actor Iko Uwais as the double agent on the road to betray his country was a pleasure to watch as his martial art fighting style erupts in stark contrast to his finger tapping meditation technique used to keep calm and get the job done.

There’s biometrics, drones, shots from car windshields, explosions – Doug Fox, who pulls double duty as both prop master and lead armorer says, “For this movie, we’re in the neighborhood of 50 weapons […]. That includes machine guns, M-4’s, AK’s, and Uzis; we also have to ship 40,000 rounds of blank ammo.” Just to give an idea of the amount of carnage.

And there’re flash forwards with Jimmy explaining in post-operation interview the unravelling of events as the four operatives transfer the Asset, 22 Miles in 38 minutes.

A simple concept, with many layers, so believable and so very violent – loved it.

The Nun

Rated: MA15+The Nun

Directed by: Corin Hardy

Screenplay by: Gary Dauberman

Story by: James Wan & Gary Dauberman

Produced by: Peter Safran, p.g.a, James Wan, p.g.a

Starring: Demian Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Jonas Bloquet, Bonnie Aarons.

After first making her presence known in, ‘The Conjuring 2’, audiences were left wondering where the demonic being, Nun Valak originated.  Here, ‘The Nun’ is set in 1952 in Romania where screen writer Gary Dauberman (“IT,” the “Annabelle” films) explores the beginnings of this force dripping with evil, leaking its way out of the chasm beneath the cloister where nuns worship isolated from the rest of the world.

Director Corin Hardy makes full use of filming in the dark 14th-century castles of Romania, including the Abby of St. Carta, with tunnels beneath the surface creating shadows and inescapable hallways as Father Burke (Demian Bichir), novitiate on the threshold of her final vow, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) and local villager Frenchie (Jonas Bloquet) investigate the suicide of a nun.

The more they dig, the more horror they find buried beneath the surface (so to speak).

I had high hopes for, ‘The Nun’ after the introduction of this terrifying creature in, ‘The Conjuring 2’ (where many in the audience left because it was so scary!) but instead of the build-up and surprising evolution of terror, here we have moments of panning like pregnant moments in a day-time soap opera.  Instead of building to climax, the moments are just… left…

The flowing shadows of spectres and bell-ringing from graves set the scene and the believable and wide-eyed Sister Irene answered some of our questions about The Nun.  But I was left with more questions unanswered about the murder of nuns who were left murderous without explanation.

I’m glad we weren’t left with a psycho exorcist film which really could have been a focus here, with all the Catholicism and crosses and well, possessed nuns.  But there were red-herrings and loose threads that just didn’t pull the story together well enough to be truly scary.  Long moments left to drift didn’t make suspense.  And the overreliance of the scare-factor of evil nuns made the nuns not so scary.

I liked that there was no digitisation used to create the spectre of The Nun; and there was some clever camera work using a Steadicam for Sister Irene versus handheld for Father Burke.  But there was none of the subtle, corner-of-your-eye moment where The Nun appears like she’s been created out of your subconscious.   So there was that missing creeping under the skin that Wan manages to create with the early instalments of Insidious and The Conjuring series.

Weaving back to the Conjuring verse made The Nun feel more like the Annabelle series than a Conjuring Part 3 – which didn’t make it terrible, just not as good as it could have been.

You Were Never Really Here

Rated: MA15+You Were Never Really Here

Directed by: Lynne Ramsay

Screenplay by: Lynne Ramsay

Based on the book by: Jonathan Ames

Produced by: Rosa Attab, Pascal Caucheteux, James Wilson, Rebecca O’Brien, Lynne Ramsay

Director of Photography: Thomas Townend

Music by: Jonny Greenwood

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov, John Doman, Alex Manette, Dante Pereira-Olson, Alessandro Nivola.

Winner of Best Actor & Best Screenplay at Cannes Film Festival, 2017, there’s already a buzz surrounding the release of this film – and, You Were Never Really Here went beyond expectation.

This is a grisly and astounding crime film where director and screen writer, Lynne Ramsay (We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)) has brought together disjointed elements of different sounds and disjointed time to create something more.

Note the music by Jonny Greenwood AKA lead guitarist and keyboardist of, Radiohead and creator of the soundtrack of, Phantom Thread which I also gave five stars.

Flashbacks and hallucinations show the fragile mind of Joe (Joaquin Phoenix), ex-military, gun-for-hire, as he works jobs as an enforcer – ‘brutally’ if necessary.

With hammer in hand Joe delivers a fatal blow to henchmen who get in his way like he’s striking a blow at the demons who continue to haunt him.  He’s like an avenging angel – a theme built upon through-out the film.

This is a brutally beautiful film based on the book by Jonathan Ames where little girls need to be rescued from very bad men.

When Joe’s asked to meet a senator whose daughter, Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), has been taken, we see just how brutal Joe can be and how deep the darkness reaches from the men who hide evil behind power.

This is a visceral and gritty crime movie with a magnetising performance from Joaquin Phoenix – I just couldn’t look away from this guy.

There’s something fascinating about Joaquin as he perfectly imbodies this hitman haunted by his past.

I was tempted to draw comparisons with, Léon: The Professional (1994): the older assassin who befriends the young girl.

But You Were Never Really Here is more than the relationship between a bad guy doing good and a troubled young girl who understands – this is more about Joe haunted by his past; about the mother he cares for (Judith Roberts) and a mind lost in memory.

With the dislocation of time, the past and present blur only to be brought back into focus with Joe grounding himself by asking, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’

Images sign-post the story: the dilated pupils of a girl’s blue eyes; the silence of a black and white security camera video; broken glasses, the eye glass with blood-stained jagged edges; the disintegration of a green jelly bean, the fracture of sugar a signal of the darkness to come.

There’s a crime story here but the weight of the film lies in the showing of how Joe sees the world as we look at him as his eyes are reflected in a car window looking back.

Astounding performance, gritty story and visually, brutally poetic.

Submergence

Rated: MSubmergence

Directed by: Wim Wenders

Based on the novel, “Submergence” by: J.M. Ledgard

Screenplay Written by: Erin Dignam

Cinematographer: Benoît Debie

Produced by: Cameron Lamb along with Wim Wenders and Uwe Kiefer

Starring: Alicia Vikander, James McAvoy, Cerlyn Jones, Reda Kateb, Alexander Siddig and Hakeemshady Mohamed.

Based on the novel written by journalist J.M. Ledgard, Submergence opens the door to soaring cliffs and underwater twilight, to the senseless violence of women buried and bashed and foreigners imprisoned while Jihadists make suicide vests.

This is a movie of contrasts, where bio-mathematician Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) and British Secret Service agent James More (James McAvoy) meet at a hotel on the Normandy coast in France.

Danielle’s a professor and believer in nature with a drive to understand the depths of the ocean down to where there’s no light, just darkness, searching for the origin of life to show the world there’s life in darkness.

Scottish agent James believes the world’s about power, that education is secondary – he wants to save the world by stopping terrorists from setting off bombs. His mission is to travel to Somalia to find the men responsible, to put his own life at risk to save others.

They meet; they fall in love. They each have a mission where they may never come back.

Submersion is a romance. The eyes meeting, searching to reveal the other. Yet, there’s this thread of water and life.

We’re introduced to the happy professor as she works on the discovery of the origins of life on earth; her research to compare samples with those from Mars, ground breaking.

Dani’s whole being is about work and what it means to the world.

She’s then drawn into a smaller world, a bubble – where love is like death; where apart she realises she’s never been lonely before.

To which her colleague Thumbs (Cerlyn Jones) replies, ‘Welcome to the planet’.

The film floats around with one storyline flowing into the other, from the underwater world viewed from a submersible hundreds of kilometres below the surface, to the stark desert sun where James is chained, waiting interrogation – waiting to get back to Danielle.

I drifted in and out of the film with the meeting of the British operatives to the lovers discussing life, to the science of photosynthetic life that creates through light to the organisms of darkness who live on chemicals – director Wim Wenders gives poetry to the perspective.

I liked McAvoy as the Scottish operative who falls in love – he’s a witty and likable character and quite a different role with more warmth and less crazy than his recent previous roles in such films as, ‘Split (2016)’, ‘Atomic Blonde (2017)’ or even ‘Trance (2013)’. I admit I’m a big fan.

Alicia Vikander as the mathematician was slow to warm as she falls for the Scotsman.

They’re a couple I found more believable apart than together.

I didn’t believe their love for each other as much as their passion for life because there was so much reasoning involved.

The contrast of the scientist, the solider, the extremists who believe Jihad is life after death – this is what I found interesting.

As Wenders states:
“What I really hope is on a rainy Thursday night in Bristol or Detroit or wherever you are, when you come out of the cinema, your perspective of the planet, on your own habits, is just altered slightly. You will realize how large the world is, how varied it is, but also how fragile it is.”

Overall, I found Submergence a quietly absorbing and interesting escape.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Rated: MMission Impossible: Fallout

Directed by: Christopher McQuarrie

Written by: Christopher McQuarrie

Based on: Mission: Impossible TV series created by Bruce Geller

Produced by: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, Dana Goldberg, J.J. Abrams, David Ellison, Don Granger

Starring: Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Alec Baldwin, Angela Bassett, Michelle Monaghan.

With a mega budget, cracking good use of the original TV show’s theme, endless action-packed chase sequences, exotic locations and enough double crosses to challenge a reality TV show, the latest instalment in the Mission: Impossible series, Fallout, more than lives up to its hype.

For those of us who are not fans of Tom Cruise (surely these are legion), the best movie of his is Edge of Tomorrow, where he is repeatedly killed in a variety of violently pleasing ways and then resurrected the next day to repeat the process – all very good fun.

In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, we have to settle instead for seeing Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt get repeatedly beaten, thrown, punched, stabbed, betrayed and pursued as part of the world-in-peril (again) mission he chose to accept in the pre-credit sequence.

The plot involves a nuclear threat and various international legal and covert parties’ desire to acquire key components ahead of their competitors, either initiating or preventing a new world-wide threat to humanity as we know it. So just business as usual.

Cruise actually broke his ankle while filming one scene (you can see him hobbling off afterwards and he isn’t acting!), so you have to give him full marks for throwing himself so enthusiastically into the breathtaking stunts that litter this two hour plus film like blood spatters at a crime scene.

Mission Impossbile: Fallout

Despite this being the sixth film in the series, it isn’t necessary to be familiar with the five that came before, none of which I have seen. There is enough exposition in the opening sequence and at regular intervals throughout the film to ensure we are sufficiently clued in about each character’s backstory. There are smatterings of amusing dialogue amongst the Impossible Mission Force (IMF) team comprising Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames and Rebecca Ferguson that indicate their shared history, closeness and unwavering loyalty, as well as their expertise in technology, explosives and medicine.

True to its television series origins, there are also a number of double crosses where characters are misled or tricked into betraying vital information. Although these scenarios were generally easy to predict, they were delivered with the requisite gusto and sleight of hand that had the audience relishing each new reveal.

The impeccably staged chase and action sequences are relentless and often very violent, with just enough quiet time in between for the audience to recover before being catapulted into another larger, louder, more explosive one that manages to outdo what has just gone before. Despite all of these action sequences interspersed with meetings with top brass, international terrorists or weapons brokers, the basic storyline remains easy to follow. The best aspect to all this was hearing the audience laugh at each new peril that stoic Tom Cruise faced, which left you wondering, ‘How is he going to get out of this one?’

What stood out most for me was how Cruise’s character retained his humanity and desire to protect the good guys, even under the most trying of circumstances, rather than being a one-dimensional assassin without a moral compass.

Rollicking good fun.

Skyscraper

Rated: MSkyscraper

Written and Directed by: Rawson Marshall Thurber

Produced by: Beau Flynn, p.g.a., Dwayne Johnson, Rawson Marshall Thurber, p.g.a., Hiram Garcia, p.g.a.

Cinematographer: Robert Elswit

Composer: Steve Jablonsky

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Chin Han, Roland Møller, Noah Taylor, Byron Mann, Pablo Schreiber, Hannah Quinlivan.

Going to see an action blockbuster with Dwayne Johnson at the helm, I felt I already knew what to expect with Skyscraper.

And as advertised Skyscraper dazzles with huge effects including: a burning super tower of 225 stories and more than 3,500 feet high, giant wind turbines used as power, an internal garden thirty-stories high with waterfall and all the tech that goes into the maintenance and functioning of such a massive building all controlled by the touch of one device, a tablet operational only with the bio imprint of security consultant, former FBI Hostage Rescue Team leader and U.S. war veteran, Will Sawyer (Dwyane Johnson).

The film opens on an operation that goes bad, Will severely injured losing his left leg below the knee.  But while getting treatment in hospital he meets his wife, Naval surgeon Dr. Sarah Sawyer (Neve Campbell).

He moves on with his life, getting married and having twins, Henry (Noah Cottrell) and Georgia (McKenna Roberts), but still struggles with his day-to-day life as an amputee.

Now consulting for the job-of-a-lifetime (thanks to his old buddy, Ben (Pablo Schreiber)) underwriting the security for the highest and most technologically advanced building in the world, Will and his family move into their new address on the edge of the Kowloon side of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour: the first residents to move into the Pearl.

Skyscraper

We see the injured hero nervously getting ready to meet the building’s visionary creator Zhao Long Ji (Chin Han), and see the love and support of his family making it seem anything is possible, until it all turns bad when deadly assassins and bad guys’ hell-bent on revenge steal the tablet to shut off all counter-measures as a fire rages on the 96th floor – below the floor where Will’s family are trapped.

It’s amazing what Will can do to save his family: leaping off a super-crane 1,000 feet in the air, edging along a window ledge so high above ground you’d need oxygen; all believable because it’s The Rock and as always, he manages to bring you alongside with him – like the crowd below the burning building, I cheered him on.

I made a comment before heading into the cinema, wondering if the character would weaponize his prosthetic leg, and the attachment comes in handy as he escapes death again and again.

The injury also gives Will vulnerability – a different role for The Rock that forces the character, Will to overcome not only external forces but also internal as he battles his own insecurity.

And the way he overcomes each obstacle with self-deprecating, yet practical self-reliance, adds some great humour to the film – a talent writer and director, Rawson Marshall Thurber has also shown in previous films, Central Intelligence (2016) and We’re the Millers (2013). 

I was also impressed with the performance from Neve Campbell as Will’s wife, Dr. Sarah Sawyer, her quiet strength making a stoic contribution, the two parents a good team in keeping their family alive.

So, if you’ve watched the trailer, you know what’s coming but you won’t be disappointed either with good action, vertigo-inducing effects and a solid story.

I won’t say my expectations were surpassed but there was some good fun here making Skyscraper a worthwhile entertainer.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Rated: MA15+Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Directed by: Stefano Sollima

Written by / Based on Characters Created by: Taylor Sheridan

Produced by: Basil Iwanyk, Edward L. Mcdonnell, Molly Smith, Thad Luckinbill, Trent Luckinbill

Music by: Hildur Guđnadóttir

Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Isabela Moner, Jeffrey Donovan, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Catherine Keener.

The word Sicario comes from the zealots of Jerusalem.  Killers who hunted the Romans who invaded their homeland.  In Mexico, Sicario means hitman (Sicario, 2015).

Sicario: Day of the Soldado brings the same grit as the previous instalment with Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro) returning to take revenge on the cartel who killed his wife and daughter; this time CIA operative Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) needs the assassin’s special set of skills to kidnap the daughter of a cartel kingpin to start a war.  Because now the American Government has declared the cartels as terrorists.

Returning from the Middle East it’s a tactic Matt Graver has used before: take down a king, you solve problems; you make peace.  Take down a prince (or here, princess), you create chaos.

Writer, Taylor Sheridan has brought back many familiar faces, developing the characters further with the exception of FBI Critical Incident Response Group Agent, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt).

Emily Blunt in the original was such a significant piece, the entire film circling her role as, the agent used by forces above her pay-grade, that I wondered how a sequel could have the same impact without her.

Yet, the shear gravitational pull of Benicio Del Toro as Alejandro and Josh Brolin as Matt Graver grab your attention, the undercurrent of force from these bad-guys, now shown to be the ones used by the government for supposed good, are further revealed as the story takes a dark road filled with soldiers from both sides of the boarder fighting their own battles – some newly recruited Coyotes where the money’s in the shepherding of migrants from Mexico to America, more money made from human trafficking than drugs; to the kidnapped daughter of a cartel kingpin, Isabela Reyes (Isabela Moner): sixteen-years-old, queen of her universe and willing to scratch and defend her own pride until the reality of her father’s business is revealed; her kidnappers the only ones she can trust.

It’s a story that keeps developing, like the previous Sicario.  And the tone is similar; yet there’s a more dramatic, emotional undertone as the innocence of the young girl Isabela reminds Alejandro of his daughter and reminds Matt of his humanity.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado

Italian director, Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah, Romanzo Criminale, A.C.A.B.: All Cops Are Bastards and Suburra) certainly had big shoes to fill after director, Denis Villeneuve absolutely nailed, Sicario (2015) (which I gave five stars, see review here).

I’m talking steal-caps not the open-toed numbers worn by Matt – here in Crocs (showing much more about this character than words just by his choice of footwear: brilliant).

And Sollima has succeeded in creating a film similar in tone but slightly different, exploring a more emotional landscape demonstrated so well in the soundtrack.

After the recent passing of composer, Jóhann Johannsson (composer of Sicario and the film here dedicated to his memory), his protégé and collaborative partner, Hildur Guđnadóttir was tasked with composing the soundtrack for Soldado.

Again, we have a similar sound with Guđnadóttir mirroring the same restraint; orchestral touches here and there and references to ‘The Beast’ – with downward bass glissandos and distorted drums.

The droning of that identifiable sound of foreboding doom would have been a temptation for over-use.  But there’s control, like the quiet power and force of Alejandro, the man instantly recognisable by the way he holds himself, by the quiet swagger of his walk.  And it’s the restraint that creates the edge-of-your-seat suspense.

There’s gun shots and blood and explosions but not gratuitous violence because that would take away from the detail of the story.

And devices like raids viewed through the night-vision goggles of soldiers soften the violence, the grainy green of blood splatter more like watching a computer game than people being shot and killed.

So thankfully for us, the audience, we get a sequel that keeps the brilliance of the first film continuing with a new and interesting story.

Some of the Villeneuve poetry is missing.  Even with those wide-len’s shots of a lonely desert still seem to miss the expanse of his eye.  And I didn’t relate to young Isabela Reyes like the force that was Emily Blunt as Kate Macer.

Yet with my expectations set to a such a high level, I was not disappointed.

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