Sinners (2025)

Everyone who sees this movie should get hit with the MIB memory eraser first. That way they forget about the movies trailer, which spoils it's biggest twist - vampires. The first half of the film is on an entirely different wavelength before the vampires get thrown into the story. We meet a boy named Sammie who wants to play the blues but this preacher father won't let him. Then Smoke and Stack, two twin brothers from the south, who killed their daddy and escaped to Chicago where they worked for Al Capone. The film never decides which of these 3 is the main character and unfortunately leaves us with no real emotional conclusion as it tries sharing the glory with all 3. I mean seriously, the movie has 3 endings. Not it's strong point... unlike the first half of the film, which is definitely it's strong point and what will eventually lead me back to watching this again. The jazzy bluesy beats and southern sweat depicted by director Coogler really hit home as the story develops for that first half. What about those vampires though? You may have almost forgot about them while watching an otherwise great movie. I felt like they just got squeezed into the story like two separate scripts were mushed together. They get added for no specific reason and eventually consume the whole final act of the film. The film turns into a grindhouse slaughter fest and that's good fun sure, if that's something you enjoy, but man did it miss the mark of quality established in that first half...

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