Nothing about the formulaic Natasha Henstridge thriller "Night of the Sicario" is either spontaneous or surprising. First, freshman helmer Joth Riggs' white-knuckled, nail-biter is neither a sequel to the enthralling "Sicario" (2015) co-starring Emily Blunt & Josh Brolin nor its sequel "Sicario: Day of the Soldado" (2018) with Benicio De Toro. Second, from a marketing perspective, it's easy to understand why Saban Films resorted to this obvious marketing strategy and replaced the original title "Blindsided" with "Night of the Sicario." Technically, the title describes the action. Villainous sicarios shoot up city streets and corner their prey in an assisted care facility. Basically, these cartel gunmen must liquidate a DEA informant, Teresa Fuentes (Amanda Diaz) before she can testify in court. Everything goes haywire for everybody when a Category 4 hurricane threatens Washington, D. C. The gunmen ambush Teresa's husband Francisco Fuentes (Martin Peña of "The Fanatic") and her daughter Amelia Fuentes (Addison Kendall of "Tuesday June 6th") on the way from the airport in a DEA SUV, and wound Francisco in the side. Eventually, the father and daughter take refuge in an assisted care facility that our protagonist Taylor Ward (Natasha Henstridge of "Ghosts of Mars") operates. Anyway, the setting of this sluggish thriller evokes memories of the gritty Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall hostage thriller "Key Largo" (1948) about gangsters holed up in hotel during a hurricane. Apart from the noisy street shootout at the start, director Joth Biggs and freshman scribes Ernesto Melara and Matthew Eason confine the intrigue to the assisted living care facility. The Mel Gibson hurricane thriller "Force of Nature" (2020) confined its characters to a private apartment building in a hurricane, but "Night of the Sicario" contains only a fraction of its violence. Ironically, for an R-rated feature, profanity and nudity are conspicuously absent.
Unfortunately, the suspense and tension are as flabby as Ms. Henstridge's figure. Indeed, this isn't the same statuesque starlet of the "Species" franchise, and she struggles to hide her surplus poundage with loose fitting apparel. In all fairness to Ms. Henstridge, since she is playing a nurse rather than an action heroine, her added weight lends her a modicum of credibility. Don't expect her to wield any conventional weapons or resort to gravity-defying kung fun acrobatics. Only during the last ten minutes does she fight her adversaries. The sicario gunmen who hold them hostage have got to be the most lenient killers on record. They put up with a lot of crap from the elderly residents. In real life, these merciless gunmen would have shot everybody and then torn the house apart to the last splinter searching for who they want. Toss in an obligatory DEA agent who winds up wanting the same thing they are after, and you've got a lame thriller. Anyway, what we are left with is a lethargic thriller that reminded me of the vintage Humphrey Bogart movie "Key Largo" about gangsters holed up in hotel during a storm. Clocking in at 82 minutes, "Night of the Sicario" is something faith-based audiences will enjoy than action-oriented crowd.
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