Sicario 2: SOLDADO

Out 29 october / Cert tbc / 122 mins

Follow 2015’s Sicario, the sequel — the subtitle means “hitman” — arrived in cinemas like a Premier League football team stripped of its 30-a-season strikers. Losing director Denis Villeneuve, star emily Blunt, cinematographer roger Deakins and the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, Soldado had its work cut out, but more than holds its own. the set-up is simple — cool AF CIA wonk Josh Brolin and hitman Benicio Del toro kidnap the daughter (Isabela Moner) of a crime boss to spark a cartel war — but director Stefano Sollima (tv’s Gomorrah) and screenwriter du jour taylor Sheridan pile on dynamic action (a set-piece with a motorcade at the us border is terrific), moral ambiguity and plain old melancholy, especially when Del toro’s assassin is forced to look after the young girl, beautifully played by Moner. If push came to shove, stick with Villeneuve’s original, but this is a tense, mostly gripping, timely follow-up.