Sicario

For a good 40+ minutes of the movie my facial expression resembled that of Del Toro's (ComingSoon.net)

There's a way to make a good movie with the kind of story we see in Sicario. Director Denis Villeneuve (2013's Prisoners) and Screenwriter Taylor Sheridan prove they know this several times throughout the movie by building intense, dramatic, and character-focused scenes of action and suspense. But to get to these masterfully constructed scenes, we're forced to sit through tedious, uneventful, confusing, and unnecessarily elongated on-screen moments. We know it could have been so much better because many scenes in Sicario were nearly flawless - and this is what makes the movie frustrating and, overall, somewhat disappointing.

I think I speak on behalf of moviegoers everywhere when I say I have better things to do with my time than stare at a screen and watch countless repetitive shots of the faces of Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, and Emily Blunt as they look out to western landscapes from a car/plane/truck window. My idea of a good movie is not 45 minutes of confusing narratives and little dialogue sandwiched together by breathtaking opening and concluding scenes which show nothing but promise from the filmmakers. These ending and beginning scenes may explain some of the lulls heavily felt in the middle of Sicaio, but they do not excuse them.

I guess you could say I went into this film the same way Emily Blunt's character went into the events of Sicario. Her character, FBI Agent Kate Macer, is eager for a good outcome but doesn't exactly get what she had signed up for. After witnessing her comrades brutally killed at a Mexican cartel bust gone wrong, Kate volunteers to work with a task force assigned to take down the men responsible for the massacre. The team, led by Matt (Josh Brolin) and Alejandro (Benicio Del Toro), consistently misleads Kate - changing destinations last minute and even putting her in deadly situations. All the while, she fears those to blame are going unpunished as she is used as a puppet for the men's ulterior motives, but refuses to turn her back on the situation.

One thing I must say the movie did flawlessly is how well the movie's actors did bringing their superbly-written characters to life. Emily Blunt, donned as an action heroine since 2012's Looper, finally sold me as a believable genre heroine. After playing relatively one-dimensional characters in Looper and Edge of Tomorrow, she has the chance to play a believable and vulnerable human character who still knows how to show brutality. Her facial expressions and body language display a complete character immersion - one scene sticking out being where she's visibly but subtly trembling as she tries to recover from the events of the opening scene.

Del Toro and Brolin also deliver performances that will be sure be considered career highlights - Del Toro establishing a grim and ruthless presence with Brolin supporting his movies with comedy, charisma, and indifference toward the consideration of others.  As Alejandro, Del Toro takes over the latter half of the movie with a commanding and astounding presence, showing his true colors as a man you would have no desire to cross paths with.

Additionally, Sicario provides many moments for these characters to prove how strongly-established they are. There are nearly a dozen scenes in the movie where the tension is so high I was genuinely concerned for the players and unsure of the outcome. When the movie (finally) gets to these scenes, it holds nothing back, and isn't afraid to shake you in your seat with the sudden bloody death of those in front of you.

With that said, it is a shame that these scenes were preceded by the first half of this movie. While not without its moments, this hour or so of the movie took away from the build-up the film could have had going throughout, especially if it were 20 minutes shorter. There were many ideas, themes, characters, and motives that could have been explored better if they did things better. Honestly, Sicario would have made a great second season of "True Detective," but as a result of its cinematic nature, time was mismanaged, pace was lost, and characters and scenes that deserved a better overall production didn't get one. Sicario's moments of sheer brilliance shouldn't be overlooked. Having said that, that terrible chunk in the middle shouldn't either.

Rating: 3/5

The Martian

Mashable

The Martian is a movie like nothing we have ever seen. Its approach to the survivor-man movie is astoundingly unique, and does things we haven't seen in similar attempts in movies like Gravity, Cast Away, and Apollo 13. The stellar cast's presence on the screen is matched only by the aesthetics and wonder of the mise-en-scene. The music is wonderfully hypnotic, and the screenplay is an accomplished balance act of comedy, drama, tragedy, and exposition. It has all the necessities of a perfect movie - and it would be if it weren't a little boring sometimes.

The Martian is the first movie Ridley Scott fans can get behind since 2012's Prometheus (or 2007's American Gangster if you're on the "I hate Prometheus" bandwagon). The movie stars Matt Damon as Frank Watney, a NASA botanist left behind on Mars after seemingly killed during a storm. Much to Earth's surprise, Watney is revealed to have survived. He deduces he must keep himself alive for nearly four years before being rescued during NASA's next mission but realizes he only has enough supplies for one.

When NASA discovers Watney isn't dead after all, a team of officials (comprised of Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, and Kristen Wiig) work to solve the problem of bringing him home. In the meantime, they're forced to deal with the press, the team that left Watney behind, and the ticking clock counting down the days until Watney runs out of resources.

The film is reliant on the talents of Damon, who carries the movie without effort. The writing is smart and calls upon Damon to rattle-off complex space/science stuff in layman's terms that I couldn't begin to explain. And as sort of a thank you to viewers for following along, the character says sarcastic quips which are legitimately funny due to Damon's wry style of delivery. In the many days (or, in the movie, "sols") where Damon is on Mars alone for extended periods, it helps keep the movie afloat.

Unfortunately, the film is not reliant enough on the talents of other cast members. It takes nearly to the halfway point before we see Watney's original crew return to the screen, even though Kate Mara, Jessica Chastain, and Michael Pena compose that team. Storywise, it made sense for their temporary absence, and the story was sure to bring them back in fully by the end. However, seeing so much time go by without proven talents like those of Jessica Chastain during the movie's more redundant parts was a hindrance on being able to fully love this movie. For several minutes at a time, The Martian is simply Matt Damon talking to a camera about how he plans to stay alive on Mars. This is where I found the film to be uneventful, and even with the comedy, utilizing the talents of the rest of the cast would have kept the film afloat even better.

What The Martian did well was realize one character probably couldn't carry the entire movie given the story it wanted to tell. What it didn't do too well was balance the stories of Watney, the NASA team, and the space crew as well as it could have. By the end, everything come together wonderfully. It was an emotionally satisfying ending that utilized time and characters flawlessly. However, the road to get to that point was drawn by filmmakers who didn't execute the story the best they could. With a better balance of these three separate stories, The Martian would have reached the heights to make it the perfect film it could have been. Watching the movie was like putting together a puzzle - all the right pieces were there, and you knew it, but sometimes the wrong piece ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. When it's complete, though, that's when you can look past the faults and recognize the accomplishment.

The good news is that after a few lackluster efforts, The Martian satisfies those anxiously waiting for both Scott and Damon to prove they've still got what it takes to be highly regarded Hollywood names. It's also incredibly pleasing to the ears and eyes with its music, effects, cinematography, imagery, and truly impeccable casting. While a better balance of characters and interrelated stories could have made The Martian more effectively paced and completely spectacular, it was missing that element. Instead, we'll have to settle for pretty spectacular, and to be honest, I'm not too upset about that.

Rating: 4/5