Sicario 2: Day Of The Soldado - review

Following the breakout success of Denis Vileneuve's Sicario, Soldado looks to continue the story. Expanding on the battle for the US/Mexico border, the focus of the saga moves from Emily Blunt's character (missing from this film) to Josh Brolin's Matt Graver and Benicio Del Toro's lawyer-turned-assassin Alejandro.
Following a bombing perpetrated by terrorists smuggled across the border, the US government classifies the Mexican cartels as terrorist organisations. Allowing Graver carte blanche to instigate a war between the cartels to try and take them all down.
But a bungled kidnapping puts the two former allies at odds that could put this fragile alliance to the ultimate test.
Taking over directorial duties, Stefano Sollima (director of Italian crime dramas such as Gomorrah, Romanzo Criminale and Suburra) is initially able to recreate that incredible feeling of tension and unease that the original film had. A film that felt like a coiled snake ready to strike at any moment.
This is particularly evident in a sequence where the US team attempt to transport a kidnapping victim back across the Mexican border only to be attacked by the police. This is equivalent of the border crossing sequence in the first film and just as effective.
What is less effective is the dawning realisation of just how right-wing the film (and saga) is in terms of its politics. The issue of the US/Mexico border and separation of families is obviously a very tender subject at the moment and the film is not particularly balanced in announcing which side of "the wall" it stands on. Following the initial bombing of a Costco on US soil, the government manage to frame the narrative in a way to allow them to wage war with the Mexican cartels, even though they were not the ones who physically carried out the bombings.
This is potentially why a large proportion of time is spent attempting to humanise the characters of Brolin and Del Toro. Particularly Alejandro as he develops a paternal bond with Isabella, the kidnapped daughter of a cartel boss. Del Toro is unsurprisingly excellent in the role. However the issue is that based on their actions in the first film, these people are already way beyond redemption.
Which is what this film is.
For it is difficult to remember a film in recent memory that has capitulated so fast in the final act.
Honestly, there is a particular moment from which point the entire film deflates faster than an undercooked souffle that you are left questioning just what the filmmakers were thinking.
There was a huge amount of excitement and potential for this sequel. Unfortunately Sicario 2 is less Day of the Soldado and more Day of the Sol-dud-o.

2 stars

A Quiet Place - review

A Quiet Place is one of those genre hits that has a concept that is so simple that you will kick yourself that you didn't think of it first. Even if you did, it is unlikely that you would have delivered it so effectively as it is here and easily the best horror debut since 2015's It Follows.
In the near future, the world has been attacked by mysterious creatures that hunt by sound and kill with a fearsome ferocity. This is all set up during the opening sequence that sees a family silently raiding a supermarket for supplies before making their way home through the woods. They don't wear shoes, they talk through sign language (precipitated by their need to communicate with deaf daughter) and have made quiet paths using sand. This peace is horrifically shattered when the youngest son finds a electronic plane and it starts to make noises, resulting in a series of silent screams that will haunt your dreams.
Fast forward to a year later and the family are surviving but at what cost? They have created a life for themselves on a farm where the dad has turned it into a secure compound with security cameras, regular and danger lighting, etc and the mum has made it a home where they have dinner on leaves instead of plates and play Monopoly with cloth counters rather than metal pieces.
There is a clear bond between the family but there is also unspoken, pun intended, issues that threaten to shatter the silence. There is guilt felt by all of them over the fate of the youngest son and there is resentment on the part of the kids who feel that the father priorities keeping them alive over showing them care and affection.
This works because of the actors who are uniformly excellent both individually and together. You completely buy into the family dynamic and are emotionally invested in their safety and survival.
Of course it helps when the husband and wife team are played by real-life couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski (who also wrote and directed the film).
Emily Blunt must love her husband a lot to do this film because Krasinski really puts her through the wringer in this as a woman who is faced with some of the most awful situations a mother can make and perfectly runs that gamut of emotions.
At 90 minutes this is an incredibly lean, tightly structured film that moves effectively from set piece to set piece and the intensity and threat increases exponentially with every moment that passes.
Krasinski wrings every drop of tension, terror and suspense out of the premise, going so far as to zoom in on an exposed nail on a step that threatens to bring their whole existence crashing down around them.
Just when you think life couldn't get any more complicated for them, a plot point that has wisely been concealed from the trailers provides a glimmer of hope for the future but also the film's most nerve shredding, knuckle whitening sequence.
The monsters are wisely kept to the shadows for the first two acts before finally coming face to face with their victims in the third act, showing off their horrifying, slightly Demigorgon-esque design.
Just as scary as the monsters is the eerie sense of quiet during the film and the credit must go to the sound design team, seamlessly moving from a natural quiet to complete silence when viewing the action from the perspective of the deaf daughter Regan (played by real life deaf actress Millicent Simmonds). Similarly, Marco Beltrami's score is used sparingly but effectively.
Speaking of which, this reviewer has never experienced a Friday night horror crowd that as silent as the movie. So caught up in the concept that it felt as if they were as frightened to make a sound as the characters in case the monsters came for them.
In A Quiet Place, silence is not only golden, it's survival. However it is safe to say that audiences and critics won't stay silent after watching it and this will turn into the breakout horror film of the year.

5 stars

Edge Of Tomorrow - review

By the end of the first act of Edge Of Tomorrow, it is clear that it isn't your typical Tom Cruise movie as it has him dying on the beach at Normandy with an alien's blood eating through his face.

Suddenly we snap back to earlier that day when Cruise wakes up again in Army custody being sent to the front line for the final battle against an alien invasion.

Stuck in a Groundhog D-Day-style time loop he is forced to relive the same day over and over again every time he dies.

It gives Cruise one of his best roles in recent years, with a character arc that sees him change from a weasely, Army PR man with a shit-eating grin to battle-hardened warrior.

After going through the five stages of grief/loss upon reliving the same situation again and again: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance, he works towards a Phil Connors-style redemption and seeks to have the perfect day and defeat the enemy and break the cycle.

Surely this can't fit into the Tom Cruise plot device where he is a successful soldier who suffers from a crisis of confidence before the love of a beautiful women teaches him that he can be a great soldier again...

Well, sort of.

While he doesn't start off as a great warrior (he can't even turn the safety off on his exo-suit), he discovers that the Army's most decorated soldier Rita Vrataski aka "Full Metal Bitch" previously had the same alien power and she trains him up to become a "Full Metal Jack Reacher", part of which includes one of the best training montages since Team America which revolves around Blunt repeatedly shooting Cruise in the face.

Blunt is an forceful and intimidating presence. Cold and steely to begin with before opening up the more Cruise interacts with her character.

She will inspire a lot of women to Cosplay as The Angel of Verdun and was potentially a new strong female sci-fi icon in the mould of Ripley and Sarah Connor. Personally I would have just liked to see a bit more of her in action to provide evidence of her legendary fighting skills.

Edge Of Tomorrow is up there with Scott Pilgrim Vs The World as the best movie based on video games only they are not based on actual video games.

It unfolds like an incredibly difficult third person platform shooter that doesn't have the benefit of auto-save points. One mistake can cost you your life and you get zapped back to the start where you have to do it all over again from the very beginning.

Like a video game it can get frustrating and repetitive to begin with but it handles it with great pace and humour, particularly the interactions with Bill Paxton's gruff Sergeant Farell.

Soon advancing through the game becomes like muscle memory (Cruise and Blunt talk through the battle time and time again choreographing their movements) and you breeze through it in no time until you come up to a new section you need to master.

Each new section comes with its own challenges and the screenplay plays nicely with the audience and characters. Is this the first time they have been here or not?

Like Tom's previous venture into science fiction Oblivion, this films wears its influence on the sleeves of its exo-suits with echoes of Starship Troopers, Aliens and Source Code.

Yet unlike Oblivion, you are not constantly comparing it to the originals and it really works on its own merits right up until the end which doesn't really work with what has come before and threatens to collapse in on itself like a giant plot black hole.

If it wasn't for the misstep at the end, this really could have Edged it as the most enjoyable blockbuster of the summer. Best start over and try again!

4 stars