Film Junk Podcast Episode #667: Sicario: Day of the Soldado + Upgrade

Posted by on July 4th, 2018   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast

podcast667

0:00 – Intro: Dino DNA Debate
16:42 – Review: Sicario: Day of the Soldado
43:10 – Review: Upgrade
1:05:10 – Other Stuff We Watched: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Joy Ride, Suburra, Moneyball, The Woman in the Window, Blockers, The Joy of Painting
1:39:15 – This Week on DVD and Blu-ray
1:41:00 – Outro

» Download the MP3 (47 MB)
» View the show notes
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  • Fletcher Thomas

    No demon, no download.

  • Blake in Boston

    I was almost on board with Jay keeping the conversation somewhat civil with the merits of Soldado, but then Sean goes ahead and calls Upgrade “Trash” and gives it a higher rating than Sicario 2. ABSOLUTE MADNESS.

    Also, Frank is stuuuuuuupid when it comes to dino DNA. #followthemoney

  • James

    Each month there is no Junk mail I am only donating the minimum requirements to the premium episode on bandcamp.

  • Frank Booth

    Fuck Junk Mail. Nobody cares what you have to say.

  • Oso Jugo

    This a hostage situation?

  • Blake in Boston

    I’m cutting you loose.

  • Sean

    There is such a thing as good trash!

  • Sean

    You’re in luck because we did junk mail this week!

  • Blake in Boston

    #DumpsterDives

  • Lori Cerny

    Since it’s too hot today, I need a good mindfuck movie to watch.

    Any suggestions?

  • devolutionary

    I actually kind of agree with Sean. Upgrade was a pleasant surprise definitely feels like an elevated B-movie but the exploitation aspect felt tame. Not sure if I think it’s better than Sicario 2 but I was more pleasantly surprised if that makes any sense. By far Leigh Whannell’s best film although that isn’t saying very much.

  • devolutionary

    Upgrade, although it definitely helps to go in with low expectations. Loved the opening movie credits as well. Surprised no one had done something like that before.

  • Sean

    Hard to pick without knowing what you’ve seen and what you like but I’ll throw out a lesser known one that I remember enjoying: Christopher Smith’s Triangle.

  • devolutionary

    Frank’s argumentative and discussion based logic from last week can be summed up as #NotAllIslands

  • Oso Jugo

    Had to listen to the podcast before I understood the reference. Lol.

  • schizopolis

    Just saw Soldado and really dug it. The problem is that you can’t help compare it with Sicario, which I thought was masterful. Soldado is more of an action-thriller. Sicario felt more like Silence of the Lambs, whereas Soldado is a more grounded and prestige version of Act of Valor with no “good guys”.

    It’s a standalone film focusing on the two Mexican kids. They’re the ones with the character arcs, but because in the back of our minds this is a sequel to Sicario, I guess we can’t help but focus on Benicio and Brolin. I wonder if I didn’t see Sicario, would Soldado still feel a little underwhelming?

  • devolutionary

    Like the general consensus, whether intentional or not, the messier storywriting didn’t help. All other technical aspects were good though. Catherine Keener’s role was basically a stand-in. She had practically no bearing on the plot. I actually liked Del Toro’s Alejandro character a fair bit but it felt like a divergence from the first one. Was also a bit confused on his motivation for vengeance. Wasn’t that already (and succinctly) addressed in the first one? Or was that a different cartel that murdered his family?

  • schizopolis

    I watched Sicario several times and they specify the boss Alexandro confronts in the end is only one of the high level guys. Reyes in Soldado (who we never see) is supposedly THE Jefe.

  • Sam

    Going with a less typical recommendation here,though might be difficult to find other than buying it on blu-ray (or the library), but there’s a film noir called The Chase from 1946, that is a pretty big mindfuck at least as film noirs go, if you’re into film noir that is. It’s worth checking out

  • Tommy

    Please no to the Purge premie. Uninteresting junk. No fun. Will probably just produce another tired horror vs comedy argument.

  • Nick

    What about a premium on the Band of Brothers series?

  • pcch7

    That could be cool but it’s a lot of content to cover. I say more Bond

  • pcch7

    Idk, it’s usually pretty entertaining when they review movies that aren’t great. Twilight premium was one of the funniest imo

  • pcch7

    We need a good trash premium at some point

  • SLions Cricket

    I noticed Jay logged in Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” as a re-watch a couple of weeks ago but he never ended up mentioning it in What We Watched. I’m guessing most of the listeners don’t care to hear a discussion on a film like Stalker but I still wish he would have discussed it. I thought Jay’s recent discussion on Mishima was excellent and this from someone who hasn’t even seen the film yet. Jay, if by some slim chance you read this message, I hope you consider discussing films like this in the future especially because the prospect of something like a Tarkovsky premium is pretty much nonexistent. There’s at least one person whose interested in hearing you talk about these types of films and I’m sure a few others (at least) out there.

  • SLions Cricket

    I’m not against the idea of these sorts of premiums and I thought the Marvel Phase 1 premium was fun and interesting to listen to (and I’ve listened to it a few times now) but I think there’s still quite a lot of big premiums to cover like Jackie Chan, Vietnam War movies, Noir, Hitchcock Pt 2 and so on and so on. Ultimately, whatever the guys want to cover is what they’ll cover and I’m happy to purchase and listen to them many times but I’m still hoping they realize there’s a lot of big potential premiums out there still.

  • devolutionary

    Sean is clearly not Jay, but he briefly discussed it on Ep: 649. I think Jay teased him on the wording of his movie watching expectations.

  • To the comment about needing an editor, I’ve taken the liberty of posting some clips of “classic” Film Junk moments on the subreddit, and there are definitely some juicy contradictions, debates, and evidence exhibits among them. I’ll probably just keep posting them bit by bit on the regular.

  • bobsponge42

    Both movies are not very good. At least Upgrade was (unintentionally?) funny.

    I loved it when Frank remembered the Bob Ross episode “like it was yesterday” where Bob talks about taking in a bat and keeping it in his pocket. Bat? Squirrel. Same thing, right? ????

  • Indianamcclain

    I was definitely more entertained by Upgrade than Sicario 2.

  • Indianamcclain

    Even after the premium I still don’t get Jay’s hatred of Mission Impossible 3.

  • Oso Jugo

    I’m trying to get into watercolor painting and I discovered this irishman Frank Clarke on youtube. He’s comical. The Bob Ross of Ireland perhaps.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NljKgz5nKqw

  • pcch7

    I don’t think he hates it, it’s probably just that Frank loves it haha

  • Beat_C

    Thanks for another cool episode. Since you haven’t had any arguments about pronunciation for a while now, I thought I’d point out that it’s Stéfano, not Stefáno.

  • tyler mikol

    You guys ever throw around the idea of doing a western premium? Maybe grab a few classics across the board like The Good The Bad And The Ugly, Rio Bravo, High Noon, and The Wild Bunch? I’d love something like that.

  • bobsponge42

    When will the Jackal make a special appearance? Been a while…

  • pcch7

    A Leone premium would be nice

  • traynor

    I love this idea.

  • Primal

    I would also love to get a Leone premium. One of my top 5 directors of all-time.

  • B MP Rooney

    Let’s all once again agree that Film Junk is the greatest thing of all time!!!

  • Beat_C

    me, too.

  • Lori Cerny

    I have no ill-will against any of these guys as they seem genial and sweet, but I just don’t think Realism landscape paintings are art. Give me a Jackson Pollock or Kandinsky!

  • Lori Cerny

    Found it on YouTube, low quality, but watchable. It’s always fun watching Peter Lorre.

  • Lori Cerny

    Watched and liked, not loved. Spooky and different.

  • Lori Cerny

    You are referring to the 2018 flick? I’ll have to wait for it to come on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Thanks for the recommendation, though.

  • pcch7

    I had saved a ton of clips over the last decade but my hdd died a few months ago

  • Damn that’s a bummer. Though it’s good to hear I’m not the only one who’s done this, makes me feel a little less of a lone weirdo cataloging moments of a podcast…

  • Matt Thephotoman

    Ok I’m calling it early. Paul greengrass to direct, Mark strong and Andrew Garfield as the British divers (Garfield obviously just out of cave diving training so will get the shakes) and Daniel wu as the Taiwanese president. Ker- ching!

  • Sam

    Glad you found it. Curious what you think. Seems pretty unknown despite having Peter Lorre in it.

  • pcch7

    haha yeah I used to just put it in wave editor while listening and clip funny moments so I could listen to specific discussions etc later when I was in the mood for some prime FJ

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