Sicario: Day of the Soldado
Columbia Pictures | Release Date: June 29, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 50 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 28, 2018
This is one of my favorite movies of 2018. Read full review
100
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 28, 2018
This movie channels the paranoia and bad faith that’s in the air at the moment and converts it into a thriller of visceral hostility and overwhelming nihilism. It’s all killer, no filler. Read full review
90
Film ThreatHunter LanierJul 3, 2018
The movie blends true-crime realism with the sensationalistic macho-opera of a gangster film, complete with unspoken blood oaths and damnation arcs that play on a loop. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJun 28, 2018
Perhaps a Sicario series would make sense after this, though part of me wants to keep this story for cinema: if the market wants franchises, let’s have more like this, please. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramJun 25, 2018
A robust follow-up, which carries the same brooding atmosphere and tension of the original. The young cast additions are also excellent. Read full review
80
EmpireJimi FamurewaJun 21, 2018
Thrillingly paced, ravishingly shot and eerily topical, Sicario 2 retains much of its predecessor’s dark charm despite its shuffled creative personnel. But a jarringly Hollywood ending dulls its overall impact. Read full review
80
UproxxMike RyanJun 20, 2018
Sicario: Day of the Soldado is an intense, at times morally ambiguous, and gritty thriller that will leave you wanting more. And, now, Benicio del Toro finally has a franchise of his own. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJun 20, 2018
Emerges as a dynamic action drama in its own right. Making sure of that is writer Taylor Sheridan, who's hatched a compelling new yarn that triggers rugged, full-bodied work from returning leading men Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineNiles SchwartzJun 28, 2018
Day of the Soldado's strained credulity in the last act has an undercurrent of kooky exhilaration, as the plot takes leaps that feel as reckless as they are refreshing in such a doleful film of terminal prognoses. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 28, 2018
Day of the Soldado retains the edge-of-the-seat and nihilistic qualities of its predecessor, but there are shifts to the overall tone, which is neither as stark nor as ominous. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisJun 28, 2018
A thinking person’s action movie - as long as you don’t think too much. Even if it has its share of preposterous moments, it crackles with nonstop tension, combat scenes and double-crosses. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJun 27, 2018
Sheridan leans toward the lurid, but with the blood is a marrow you don’t get from other movies, where action is increasingly tied to fantasy. Soldado bludgeons its way into touchy border politics, and maybe lucks its way into a story focused on the moral imperative of protecting a single child. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshJun 27, 2018
Sollima’s style is cool and observational. There also are several stunts combined with camera movements that are genuinely jaw-dropping. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyDarren FranichJun 20, 2018
Day of the Soldado is our generation’s Rambo: First Blood, Part 2, a half-mad sequel transforming a traumatized political parable into a fantasy of all-American murder gods. Read full review
72
IGNWitney SeiboldJun 20, 2018
Sicario: Day of the Soldado is a darkly thrilling film with excellent performances, and its gritty, intense action is balanced by heady themes of moral decay, but overall, because of recent political developments, it feels behind the times. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 28, 2018
Sicario: Day of the Soldado is exciting, and still delivers nihilistic thrills. But this time around, the filmmakers are satisfied with that and not much more. Read full review
70
Village VoiceApril WolfeJun 26, 2018
Del Toro and Moner say everything that’s needed with pained, bewildered eyes. Meanwhile, Graver speaks with relentless American cynicism. He is both funny and unnerving, and maybe more unnerving because he’s being funny. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJun 25, 2018
When Day of the Soldado truly wallows in violence, it does so exquisitely, with the kind of hopelessness that film violence, especially around this subject matter, should convey. But it also destabilizes any marketable attempts at heroism or character investment. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeJun 20, 2018
"Soldado” may not be as masterful as Villeneuve’s original, but it sets up a world of possibilities for elaborating on a complex conflict far too rich to be resolved in two hours’ time. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJun 27, 2018
The film’s overarching story is solidly scripted, although it lags somewhat in the second act, and the government figure played by Catherine Keener is woefully undeveloped (an especially sore point since Emily Blunt in the original film portrayed such a formidable female lead). Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 28, 2018
At its mean, snakelike best, it’s also a brutally assured commercial action picture, unburdened by the moral qualms or unnerving ambiguity of its predecessor. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 28, 2018
There’s also a relentless darkness in "Soldado" that some fans of the original will love, but the inherent idealism of Blunt’s Macer is missed: When everybody's a shade of bad, it begs for any sort of normal protagonist. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJun 28, 2018
This is a much more conventional film with fewer pretensions to high art. Violence exploited for mere entertainment is so commonplace it hardly seems worth noting. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonJun 28, 2018
An adequate action film, but it lacks the envelope-pushing artistry of the original. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversJun 28, 2018
For starters, the follow-up to 2016's Sicario is not in the same essential-viewing category as the original – that's what happens when you remove inspired director Denis Villeneuve from the equation. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 28, 2018
Murky, clunky, but sometimes nihilistically exhilarating. Read full review
63
The Associated PressJake CoyleJun 27, 2018
There’s a mean potency to the borderland noir of both Sicario films, enough that it sometimes recalls another tale of explosions and drug enforcement agents on both sides of the border: Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil.” Day of the Soldado is too sober and grim for the sweaty heat of “Touch of Evil.” But it has taken to heart one of its best lines: “All border towns bring out the worst in a country.” Read full review
61
Paste MagazineWill LeitchJul 3, 2018
The movie’s action is no-nonsense, no-frills explosions and machine gun stuff, and it lacks the soaring vision of Villeneuve; Sollima is much more of a plunge-forward linear filmmaker. That approach has its advantages, though, and while I wouldn’t have wanted Sollima to try to tackle some of the thornier ethical issues of the first film, he’s more than capable of rampaging through and past them here. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 2, 2018
Although Sollima’s film is unbothered, for the most part, by the plight of refugees, it gets one thing dismayingly right: our most significant witness, on the fault line where Mexico and America grate against each other, is a child. Read full review
60
CineVueMaximilian Von ThunJun 28, 2018
Despite all this, Sicario 2 remains highly watchable thanks to what it does preserve from the original: its mood of constant dread and impending doom. Read full review
60
Time OutCath ClarkeJun 28, 2018
Del Toro is the Ernest Hemingway of screen badasses: the less he says the better he is – he does his most convincing work while looking like he’s about to nod off. ‘Sicario 2’ sets up a future instalment centred on him: that sequel will be a must. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 26, 2018
The trouble with this muscular, fitfully absorbing, confusingly titled action movie — a bigger, brasher and less memorable picture than its predecessor in every respect — is that its cynicism too often feels like a put-on. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 26, 2018
Dumber, less inventive and not as pretentious as “Sicario” (released in 2015, directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Mr. Sheridan), it both advances and retreats, expanding on the original and narrowing its scope. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Jun 25, 2018
Director Stefano Sollima, who cut his teeth on Italian TV mob dramas, is good at building suspense. He fills the screen with striking images, too -- night-vision raids, heat-signature tracking, eye-in-the-sky surveillance. Read full review
58
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJun 29, 2018
It’s an inferior, often frustrating film, it’s hard to root for, and its consideration of its people of color is dubious, even as it features them as protagonists. But nonetheless, there’s some value, especially in is visceral qualities and the chilling nihilism of its violence. Read full review
58
The Film StageConor O'DonnellJun 29, 2018
For all his competent and confident staging, perhaps a steadier hand than Sollima’s could have steered the script to a place where some emotional payoff feels rightly earned, or coalesced Sheridan’s takes on the immigration crisis into a more cohesive, singular point. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartJun 29, 2018
Without a humanizing element like Blunt’s character, this whole grim affair is just a race to the bottom in which everyone loses. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoJun 29, 2018
Some will be turned off by the exploitative violence and some by the shallow storytelling, but what struck me most about “Day of the Soldado” was the predictability of it all. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 28, 2018
When the thriller’s third act collapses in on itself , breaking its own unsentimental rules and reminding us that this is the studio that reboots “Spider-Man” every three years, whether we ask for it or not, “like” becomes a stretch. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekJun 28, 2018
If you’re looking for a movie that speaks to the moment, a mindless action-thriller probably isn’t it. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJun 20, 2018
No matter how commanding Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin might be, Soldado is a less inspired or thoughtful redo of its predecessor, jettisoning nuance for amped-up nihilism. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 20, 2018
Alas, all the darkness in the world doesn’t make “Day of Soldado” feel real, and errant mentions of a weak-stomached POTUS violently return us to the atrocities happening beyond the frame. Read full review
45
Vanity FairK. Austin CollinsJun 29, 2018
The results are, understandably, thrilling at times, because violence is thrilling—vengeance even more so. But what it adds up to is a chaotic, misbegotten mess. Read full review
45
Film Journal InternationalChris BarsantiJun 27, 2018
There is only so much a director can do to bring surprise to certain stock elements—it would be refreshing to just once see a convoy survive a movie without being ambushed—but Sollima knits together big, sweeping aerial shots and tight-in, juddering angles that work each nerve not already done to pieces by all the automatic weapons fire and exploding vehicles. Read full review
45
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJun 20, 2018
All the human strife, all the political squabbling, comes across like an excuse to be “badass” but high-minded about it. The film’s shootouts are “cool” but lack anything resembling a meaningful perspective, so when the characters talk about the political rationales for their violence, it rings hollow. And when the bullets fly, nothing else seems like it ever mattered. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJun 25, 2018
The occasionally hackneyed dialogue (one would hardly believe Sheridan also wrote the terrific Hell Or High Water) and anonymously copied direction comes across as a crude approximation of the original Sicario’s sinister narrative, with a similarly stripped-down mise-en-scène, but no sense of purpose. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJun 21, 2018
A superficial sequel that lacks the first movie’s unique quirks and soul. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJun 29, 2018
Despite the hot-button subject matter, there is no sense of currency, or even controversy, here. The drama seems less personal or political than one calculated for shock value. One late, violent plot twist is so preposterous as to defy the level of credulity one normally reserves for a horror film. Read full review
33
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJun 28, 2018
The action scenes are tense and well-staged, and the performances are staggeringly effective. On a technical level, it’s a notable work of formal craftsmanship. But to what end? Read full review
30
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJun 28, 2018
It’s inexcusable for a movie that tries to say daring and surprising things about a very urgent matter of cultural and political importance to be so thuddingly predictable in so many places. Read full review
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