This is not a movie for the faint of heart.

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, this movie is not a date night movie. Oh no, no, no. This is a full-on gang buster, set in the dangerous streets of Juarez, Mexico. Kate Macer is a jaded FBI agent, recruited to be a part of a task force that includes Matt Graver (Brolin) and a Colombian named Alejandro (del Toro).

Out of the gate, Villeneuve gets his point across. You see dead bodies in the first five minutes, and you know this movie isn’t fooling around. I became lost in Blunt’s performance, and she nails not only the humanity behind an already difficult job as an FBI agent, but also coming to terms with operating ‘by the book,’ versus not. 

Benicio del Toro starts off slow; his character actually ticked me off. “Why is he even in this movie?!” was my initial thought. I guess I was a little too quick to judge, because he ends up comprising much of the movie. In fact, I would argue the same bait-and-switch tactics employed in Mad Max: Fury Road (we all thought it was going to be a movie about Tom Hardy, but it was a movie about Charlize Theron’s character) were employed here. I did believe I was going to see a movie about Emily Blunt kicking butt (and she did, thank you very much) – perhaps just not as much as I would have liked her to – that one really comes down to preference.

Can I compare this to Black Mass? To be honest, that’s a tough one. Both movies were done well. The acting was top notch, and the writing was great – never bland or lacking energy. Do I like one better than the other? Yes. Sicario appealed to me more. Watch this one if you want to see an excellent action movie. I would not complain if someone took me to see it again.