Monday, May 1, 2017

Sleight (2017) Review

"Chronicle meets Iron-Man"

Not quite...

But it's not a bad movie either. Sleight (2017) is sort of a super-hero story told in an unusually long way that leaves a lot of details out of what gives the protagonist his unique abilities. Both the films mentioned in the promotional image above explain the origin of the powers and abilities pretty well so when they build franchises around them, they don't have to explain everything all over again.

Sleight, however, takes a break from giving the hero any real explanation outside of some self-augmentation with very little to back-up where it comes from. Bo, the hero played by Jacob Latimore is smart and would have earned a scholarship to be an engineer.  His specialty being in electromagnetic energy and the manipulation of it. However, when his mother passes away he is forced to care for his little sister and does so by being a street musician during the day, and a drug courier by night.

His boss, Angelo is played very well by Dulé Hill who you might know from the Psych TV series. The role is different for Hill and is probably one of the best parts of the movie outside the hero theme. Trouble begins when Bo tries to rush his way ou of Angelo's work to make a better life for him and his sister by cutting the product to make more and sell more to keep some of the profit for himself.

Granted, it's hard to label the character a hero considering what he is already doing and how he gets in the predicament. But the theme of the film is survival and escaping dire situations so the story works well, but the pacing does not.

One thing the film could have done without is the love interest. It's barely believable in a film about someone with powers and frankly eats up time the protagonist could have been built up more. That being said, Sleight is still a good movie and if you can feel like catching a matinee it could be worth sitting through.

The film is rated 'R' for the adult situations involving drugs, violence, language and gore.

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