Netflix's 91-Minute Action Thriller That's Taken Over The World Is Perfect If You Like Sicario

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Published Aug 27, 2026, 5:20 PM EDT

Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more.

Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor.

He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre.

To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net.

There is a new movie streaming on Netflix that is a perfect new release for fans of Sicario. Of course, Sicario is the Denis Villeneuve movie written by Taylor Sheridan about a coordinated attempt to bring down a drug lord, all while playing out in striking shades of gray. The movie is an action thriller in which the good guys and bad guys do not look that different, but still one that gives viewers a good character to watch the story from the point of view of.

The new movie on Netflix is called Facing El Chapo, and it is a Spanish-language crime thriller about two police officers whose lives change when they pull over a car and find one of the world's most dangerous criminals. Directed by Chava Cartas, the movie stars Hector Kotsifakis, Alfonso Herrera, Juan Pablo Cruz García, Paola Fernandez, and Noé Hernández.

On top of Facing El Chapo being a movie that is a perfect option for people who love Sicario and films like that, it is also a good movie for anyone who misses the Netflix original series Narcos and its franchise. The big selling point here is that the police officers are thrown into danger they never expected when they woke up that morning, and it all centers around organized crime and the drug trade south of the border.

Facing El Chapo Is Great For Fans Of Sicario & Narcos

A police officer stands behind El Chapo in Facing El Chapo

Facing El Chapo is based on a true story, but there are things in the film that are not entirely accurate. The movie is based on events known as Operation Black Swan, which is a military-led mission to recapture El Chapo (Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera) after he escaped from prison in 2015. El Chapo and his main lieutenant actually escaped the raid and then hit the road, only to get pulled over by two traffic cops.

Unaware of the raid and manhunt, the two officers then find themselves in way over their heads. The movie has a lot in common with Sicario since it does involve the big raid by U.S. forces, but there is a lot here for fans of Narcos as well, mainly thanks to it being about the real-life El Chapo. The fact that it was two cops who arrested El Chapo again after a standoff speaks volumes about the intense story.

Why Facing El Chapo Has Become A Huge Netflix Hit

Not only is Facing El Chapo a perfect movie for fans of Sicario and Narcos, but it is also a massive hit for Netflix. The movie shot to the top of the Netflix charts and became the number one title on the non-English language list of most-watched movies. It also hit number one for the total number of views, and this is surprising since critics mostly ignored the movie when it hit the streamer. The movie only has two reviews from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, although both are positive.

In its first week on Netflix, Facing El Chapo had 18 million views, while the second-place non-English language movie, A Child of My Own, only had 6.2 million views. In fact, Facing El Chapo had more views than the second, third (The Wave), and fourth (To the Max) place movies combined.

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