mitchellrath

Taking place in the Deep South, early 1930's, we follow identical twin brothers (played by Michael B. Jordan) known as the Smokestack Twins, one named Smoke (in blue) and the other Stack (in red). The Smokestack Twins come back home to Mississippi from years of crime in Chicago, and before that, the trenches of World War One. Looking to settle down and open-up a Juke Joint outside of town. The twins find themselves a good guitar man (Miles Caton) from the local church, cook, proper advertising, and even interested customers. Opening night for the Twins goes off without a hitch, until the vampires came late at night. That's right, vampires.

Sinners takes time to build up to the wild, blood-soaked second half but for the movie overall this works. Each character, main and supporting, has a proper amount of time for introductions and establishes potential impact on the story moving forward. Also in the film is Hailee Steinfeld who plays Stack's ex-girlfriend Mary, and Jack O'Connell playing the main villain Remmick the head vampire. Other notable actors and actresses include Delory Lindo, Wunmi Mosaku, and Omar Miller. Everyone actor/actress played their parts remarkably well. Many of the actors used heavy southern accents while performing their role in this movie appropriately.

It would be difficult to talk about Sinners without talking about the music. Inside this film is a fine collection of Blues, Gospel, Soul, and Irish music. The Sinners soundtrack alone could be recommended to anyone who is a fan of the music genres. The music scenes are not at all out of place, or forced, and even drive the movie forward. Visually speaking, Sinners have excellent cinematography. Sinners looks clean while still capturing the extreme heat, and hazardous vibe of 1930's era Deep South.

My criticism only comes from a few scenes that could have been taken out or maybe relocated. The sex scenes didn't necessarily add anything to the overall story. Sure, the male and female characters have a history together, but there are other ways to move the story forward without showing, or even having, a lovemaking scene. Another scene comes at the end, I won't give out spoilers, that almost feels out of place. The action scene, while visually intense, just comes off as rushed. Maybe it's not the best way to tie up the ending, in my opinion at least. I would have to give this more thought too, but I am not sure that the overall message is the best take away for this film/story.

Overall, great performances all around, visually striking, and a surprise action film hit of 2025. The runtime of roughly two hours and 30 minutes will go by quickly once the second half starts.

Released 10 days ago (April 4th), A Minecraft Movie has created the following: laughs, controversy, and big bucks. As of April 14th, A Minecraft Movie has earned over half a billion dollars at the box office and is going into Easter weekend with that number only going up. Who knew a simple sandbox game about creating wonders during the day and dodging zombies by night would be a hit at the theaters. With the unlikely duo in the star roles, Jack Black (playing Steve) and Jason Momoa (playing a character known as Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison) set off on an adventure within the Overworld to save the villagers from the gold-hungry antagonist Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House). Together Steve and "The Garbage Man" are joined by other human characters Natalie, Sebastian, and Dawn. All together they will explore the land, explore the world, and build forts and weapons.

This will go without saying; however, those audience members who have never heard, or played, Minecraft will have no idea what is going on. On top of the ridiculous humor, and Jack Black over-the-top personality, this movie will fly right by you and leave you wondering, "what did I just see?". As for myself, I am a Minecraft novice, I was able to notice most of the game references. As for the most talked about moment, yes, I mean the "Chicken Jockey", that reference went over my head. Back on track, fans of the Minecraft game will appreciate the film's attention to detail and loyalty to the source material.

Most of the dialogue throughout the film tries extremely hard to make the audience laugh. Granted, this film is a comedy inside an outrageous premise. The tactic of "let's lean into the ridiculousness" is what is showcased. I'll admit, a few parts gave me a few good chuckles and two good laughs. The humor earned a hard PG rating and possibly going into PG-13. At the end of the day, this film is fun, and I unexpectedly had a good time. The heavy use of green screen is justified given the Overworld context. Nevertheless, I liked how the movie looked overall. It communicates exactly what you're going to get. Ridiculous, stupid laughs.

Overall, both fans of Minecraft and comedy will appreciate this movie. Maybe convince a few people to give Minecraft to try to see what it is all about. With a runtime of 1 hour and 41 minutes, you can expect a good old ridiculous time with this film. I would give this film a 6/10.

In this movie adaptation, directed by Osgood Perkins, of Stephen King's short novel, The Monkey revolves around twin brothers (children played by Christian Convery, adults played by Theo James) who discover a mysterious toy monkey wielding two drumsticks and a single drum. As it turns out, naturally, this is no ordinary toy monkey. The monkey is discovered among a pile of junk left behind by the boy's father, who supposedly ran away according to the mother (played by Tatiana Maslany). The toy Monkey is activated by turning the key in the back. Once activated, the toy plays the drums and suddenly stops. Seems innocent at first until a random person dies a horrible freakish death. As it turns out, this is no ordinary toy monkey and does not like to be called a toy.

I would like to say, I did not read the short novel by Stephen King and went into this movie without the full background. Any judgements I am about to make is solely based on the movie itself. I expected a normal run of the mill "cursed object" movie, which this movie is. What caught me by surprise is the comedy tone throughout the film. It is safe to say there is more comedy than horror in this film. Similar in a way to Beetlejuice, the audience can expect to see a lot of messed-up/crazy things but nothing that'll make you fall asleep scared. Among all the messed-up scenes include both over-the-top and ridiculous gore.

The atmosphere of the movie matches the cinematography. Dark comedy vibes combined with a touch of dark atmosphere of the surrounding world. The characters have trouble growing up into adulthood because of this cursed Monkey and the film perfectly portrays that. It's a weird movie for anyone not knowing what they're walking into. For a member of the audience who has read the book beforehand and has an idea of what they're walking into; you would have a better time with this movie, I think. As for me, at this moment I am on the fence. Sometimes a second viewing down the road would have me liking or disliking this movie.

Otherwise, I found the acting all around to be fine and appreciated the cameo by Elijah Wood. Some of the jokes were funny but not rememberable. The gore is like I said over the top. Maybe this movie would be better as PG-13 and put extra focus on the background of the Monkey and character motivations. When it came time to wrap up the movie at the climax, it wasn't quite clear the catharsis behind all the chaos happening in the movie. But, if you're not looking for meaning and want more "blood-and-guts", this movie has enough to go around.

Overall, if you're looking for a dark comedy based on a book, this is the movie for you. With a runtime of an hour of forty minutes, you'll get your moneys worth. As for me, this movie is just too weird for me.