Decent story, good action scenes, but the main character...wow

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2016)

I would like to have given Sicario more than 5 stars, but I just can't bring myself to do it. The story is an interesting take on the usual drug war movies. The action scenes were well done, for the most part. Cinematography was not bad at all. Unfortunately Emily Blunt's character was so unbelievable it just sucked the fun right out of the movie. We are supposed to believe that Emily Blunt's character has spent her entire time with the FBI, as a "door kicker" on their elite Hostage Rescue Team. The HRT is no picnic, and getting selected takes a physical, mental, and emotional toughness that Emily's character lacks. If I were in the FBI I'd be embarrassed by this film. We get to watch for 2 hours as Emily's character is thrown into violent encounters where she perfects the art of looking like a scared fish out of water. If her character was supposed to be an analyst, this might have been believable. Unfortunately the writers are asking us to believe that an elite HRT member gets selected to join a task force with a CIA "Special Activities Division" team, where she'll finally be able to punch crime in the face, and instead she whines and complains about everything they do. I'll tell you what, if I was on the SAD team I'd have been just as upset to have her around as they apparently were. At least the movie had that one believable element.