An underrated hard-hitting action thriller movie is on TV tonight

A third film in the franchise looks like it's finally on the way.

Our TV movie pick for tonight (Wednesday, 16 September) is Sicario 2: Soldado, the underrated sequel to the brilliant action thriller Sicario.

Sicario is the Spanish word for 'hitman', while Soldado is the Spanish word for 'soldier'. The 2018 follow-up is set a few years after the original.

The story begins with a bombing by ISIS on American soil that kills 15 people. In response, CIA officer Matt Graver (Josh Brolin, Wake Up Dead Man) is given the green light by the US Secretary of Defence (Matthew Modine, Full Metal Jacket) to "shake the tree" and create chaos for the Mexican cartels, who are suspected of having smuggled the terrorists into the United States.

Reuniting with anti-cartel hitman Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro, One Battle After Another), the pair decide the best way to do this is to instigate a war between the rival cartels. As part of the plan, they kidnap Isabel (Isabela Merced, Peacemaker), the daughter of a major drug kingpin, framing another cartel for the crime in a false flag operation.

Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima (Gomorrah, ZeroZeroZero) replaced Denis Villeneuve in the director's chair for the sequel.

The movie received mixed to positive reviews. Many critics complained about the absence of Emily Blunt's protagonist from the original.

Watch the trailer for Sicario 2: Soldado right here:

That said, we here at JOE are big fans of Soldado. In a retrospective to mark its fifth anniversary, we wrote: "[Soldado delves] deeper into the shadowy world [screenwriter Taylor] Sheridan only scratched the surface of in Sicario, this time from the perspective of Alejandro and Matt - deeply flawed but tough-as-nails men who know it all so well.

"While the original mostly stayed set around the US-Mexico border, Soldado is much more globe-trotting. In its opening stretch, it also travels to Africa and South America in a bid to convey to viewers the interconnectivity of the crime world. The result is fascinating, with Sheridan and Sollima breathlessly highlighting how an oil pirate in Somalia, a Mexican criminal gang and an ISIS suicide bomber can be all linked together.

"On top of this, they also show through the subplot focusing on the teenager Miguel (Elijah Rodriguez) how easy it can be for a relatively normal young boy to be corrupted just through bad influences and the promises of wealth."

In the retrospective, we also expressed our hope that the long-awaited third Sicario flick, apparently titled Sicario: Capos, will eventually come to fruition. While on the press tour for his latest film The Dog Stars, Brolin provided an encouraging update on this.

Sicario 2: Soldado is airing on TV tonight on BBC One at 11.40pm. The movie is also available to rent on Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video, Rakuten TV, and the Sky Store.

Here are the other movies on TV tonight (Wednesday, 16 September):

Film	Channel	Time
Rocky	ITV4	9:00 PM
Con Air	Comedy Central	9:00 PM
Star Trek	Sky One	9:00 PM
Greed	Film4	9:00 PM
3:10 to Yuma (2007)	Legend	9:00 PM
Stealth	Legend Xtra	9:00 PM
She Said	Film4	11:10 PM
Our Ladies	Film4	1:45 AM
Dreamland	Channel 4	2:50 AM