User Reviews

The first several scenes of 'Sleight' follow the indelible Bo (Jacob Latimore) as he masterfully performs card and coin tricks for friends and strangers, the likes of which suck you into his world with genuine intrigue.

Yet Bo's world is complicated, juggling his responsibilities as sole guardian of his little sister's welfare and dealing drugs for a local thug.

At this point I was already somewhat puzzled at Bo's choices to make ends meet financially. Why the drug dealing? I personally knew a couple of street magicians back in San Francisco who raked in hundreds of dollars a day with their showmanship -why not Bo? His high caliber of illusions certainly qualifies, yet he prowls the night away with copious amounts of narcotics while his little sister is watched over by a kindly neighbor.

Sorry, that just doesn't make a lot of sense.

As our story develops we learn Bo's mastery of magic involves a fair amount of electronic aids, which proved to be a real let down for me in a couple areas.

First, we WANT to believe Bo has a natural inclination to near superhuman qualities in order to do the things he does, yet come to find it's merely high tech gadgets at work.

Second, the mutilation of the laws of physics and electromagnetism will ruin the fun for anybody with a working knowledge of these sciences.

I would give a layman's explanation as to why, but that gets into Spoiler Territory.

It's enough to say Bo's devices are pure fantasy and impossible to construct in this day and age, but it is fun to watch.

Director J. D. Dillard and company put this film together on a relative shoe-string budget of only $250,000 dollars (it's grossed six times that so far), which all by itself is an accomplishment.

By comparison, big budget Hollywood has a long history of complete train wrecks costing 100 times that amount, but only delivering half as much.

All of the supporting roles were adequate if not a little shaky, with the exceptional stand-out performance by Dule' Hill, who portrays Angelo, the high-functioning and affable drug baron who's charm and effect is polished and impeccable yet can deliver extreme pain and misery on any enemies at the drop of a hat. His character alone added much to the story.

Aside from that, combined with a truly baffling ending, 'Sleight' with all it's potential entertainment value makes two or three fatal errors which dropped it from a rating of 8.5 to a merely adequate 6 in this reviewer's eyes.

'Sleight' delivers, but only the minimum amount required.

Bo is a Los Angeles high school graduate who had to back out of a scholarship after his single-parent mother died so he could take care of his little sister in the semi-fantasy crime thriller "Sleight," but everything our hero does to shield his sister seems to endanger her. The problem with freshman writer & director J.D. Dillard's "Sleight" is simply that it is too slight. Dillard and co-scripter Alex Theurer have contrived the perfect set-up, but their gifted hero has it a little too easy when he must fend for himself. What we've got here is some David Cronenberg combined with some M. Night Shyamalan, but implausibility ruins the whole thing. Jacob Latimore makes a sympathetic enough character given his dire predicament. He must support his younger sister, Tina (Storm Reid of "12 Years a Slave"), and he seems to be acquitting himself well initially considering his predicament. During the day, he performs street magic that blows the minds of passersby. For example, Bo can levitate a ring and let a girl snatch it out of the air to prove no strings were attached!

Eventually, Dillard and Theurer reveal that the fantasy element is in name only. Bo has managed not only to engineer an electromagnet but also install it in his right shoulder with wires running under his skin so he can perform magic tricks. You would think that caring for his sister would be enough to keep him busy. A guy with this kind of ingenuity should have been able to do better than what he does to make ends meet. Indeed, he has an older lady, Georgi (newcomer Sasheer Zamataa), a considerate neighbor who helps Bo out when he cannot stick around with Tina late in the evening. Bo's night-time job is selling drugs for a volatile, hot-tempered drug dealer, Angelo (Dulé Hill of "The Guardian"), who is obsessed with respect. He insists that everybody must respect him. The question that the filmmakers neglect is how did Bo came to meet Angelo? These two don't run in the same circles so you wonder how he got drawn into Angelo's web of crime. Meantime, rival pushers infringe on Angelo's bailiwick, and Angelo goes ballistic. He interrupts Bo during a date and forces him to join his henchmen for a confrontation with these poachers.

About the same time all this is happening, Bo has met a girl, Holly (Seychelle Gabriel), with her own sordid story. Seems that Holly's grieving mom loves to beat up on her because of her daughter because a divorce has ruined her life. Eventually, by the 20-minute mark, our protagonist realizes to his horror that he must abandon the life of a drug dealer because Angelo requires him to take too many risks. Meantime, Bo has come up with an exit strategy. He plans to cut Angelo's drugs with vitamin C and acquire more than enough money to get out of the life. This cliché is pretty well worn, and Bo's best intentions land him in even hot water. Angelo learns Bo has been diluting the potency of his drugs, and he imposes an unrealistic settlement on Bo. Our protagonist must now come up with an absurd amount of money--$45 thousand—to square himself with Angelo. Although he pedals drugs galore, Bo is the most considerate dope dealer in cinematic history. His customers love him and share their innermost fears with him. Unfortunately, Bo's luck runs out, and he finds him in a no-win situation. Bo must even rob one of his customers to make Angelo's payment. Appropriately enough, Dillard and Theurer paint Bo into a corner that he cannot escape. Clearly, Bo cannot come up with the loot by the deadline that Angelo has set up, and Angelo is adamant about his deadlines. Angelo intends fully to kill Bo if necessary.

Dillard and Theurer gravitate to the land of fantasy, and they turn Bo into a low-rent, Marvel superhero, with enough power to blunt bullets in mid-trajectory and then hurl them back at his assailant. Mind you, Dillard and Theurer have fashioned an interesting film on a tantalizing premise, but their characters aren't fully developed, and some of the situations simply aren't convincing. Bo crosses the line early on when he goes with Angelo and his thugs to discipline a rival dealer. Angelo doesn't want to kill Maurice (Mane Andrew of "The Hot Chick"), but he wants to punish him. Angelo forces a reluctant Bo to hack off the rival dealer's hand with a meat cleaver. Since Bo cannot rely on his physical strength to triumph over his adversaries, he falls back on his semi-magical powers and turns himself into an urban Iron Man. The filmmakers try to make Bo's transition from harmless to heroic by letting him perform stunts that gradually increase his power with the electromagnet. Ultimately, "Sleight" takes its premise too far to be believable. Dillard and Theurer construct a house of cards, but everything collapses in terms of credibility on the way to its happy ending. The evil Angelo has kidnapped Bo's sister, and Bo means business when he soups up his electromagnet and confronts this unsavory villain.

The way that Dillard orchestrates the action compensates for the lack of credibility in plot. The narrative transitions are slick, and his "Maximum Rider" lenser Ed Wu creates atmosphere galore with his widescreen cinematography that underline the dramatic moments. Although it qualifies as a superficial, there is nothing slight about J.D. Dillard's direction.

Didn't know a thing about this movie going it, except that it involved some magic (ala Now you see me)

While there are some magic, it doesn't even try to base it on actual magic. all camera tricks & editing that can't be done in real life. And the story doesn't really make sense if you look into it.

***SPOILERS***

This supposedly smart 'engineer' implanted an electromagnet in his arm that looks like he got in a car accident. Then later on, tells us that there are fine wires running down his arms to his hands UNDER his skin (with no scars). REALLY?! You got an infected car wreck on your upper arm and then tell us that you have wires surgically implanted in the rest of your arm with no scars, all by yourself with one hand?! And the purpose of this is to levitate/move metallic object. Again, none of the writers seem like they took basic science. Magnets has no effect on precious metals or LEAD! So you can't levitate a silver ring, rip out gold teeth or stop lead bullets.

Also, why make him this smart (seemly moral) dude if you're just gonna have him deal drugs, steal from his friends and dealer. If he really is smart and made an electromagnet implant that work, why doesn't he just sell it. And no bs about magic secret, a lot of magician sell their tricks & props for profit. And the whole reason he got into magic was to find out one trick, which that magician told for free. There is nothing in this movie that shows he's as smart as the movie claims. Everything in this movie makes him out to be a hustling hood rat (with a heart, but only for 3 people) who hates being a hustling hood rat. That's like saying peter parker hate being spider-man when he could be rich selling his web fluid.

Lastly, on him owing his dealer money. He needed 9 grand, why not sell his car? He could've easily gotten 10k for it. Again, this dude is suppose to be smart?!

I tend to put a lot of store in Metacritic and IMDb scoring, and chose to see this film based on those. The acting and production values are adequate, but the story is completely preposterous. Not only does it completely disregard any notion of physics. but assigns zero value to the brilliant sleight of hand the protagonist displays, and instead shifts into unnecessary and gratuitous "hood" action. It even largely ignores its own bizarre reality. Worst of all, the protagonist seems to have no moral compass at all, willing to screw anyone without the slightest regret. I give it a two for being competently made, but the script deserves a -10. Disgusting.

I don't get the dislike for this movie to be honest, i thought it was pretty solid. The main plot or driving force behind the film is cliched i will say that. It's your typical "guy owes money to the big baddie and if he doesn't pay his loved ones get hurt" story. The difference here is that the main character uses a pretty nifty gadget integrated into his arm to somehow control metal around him using magnets or something (similar to Magneto kinda). Now personally i don't understand science or chemistry too much to verify if any of this is possible but hey it's entertainment after all so who really cares. This also gives this film a cool kinda twist, which essentially makes this an origin story for the lead to become a Hero similar to Iron Man or Batman. The acting was pretty good, and honestly i didn't find any cons with the movie besides it being too basic, ohh and the ending which was disappointing since they tease something cool happening and we don't get to see it. It's a 7.5 for me

Bo (Jacob Latimore) is a street magician who does wondrous tricks because he has placed an electromagnet in his arm. Between this and dealing drugs for Angelo (Dulé Hill) is manages to care for himself and sister (Storm Reid). The drug dealer is our protagonist in this urban tale. Bo meets Holly (Seychelle Gabriel) as he sells Molly which turns into a folly as he cuts the product. Golly. (Sorry, but this is how I get my jolly.) The magic aspects turns what would be just another boring urban story into something interesting. I have my doubts that an electromagnet would have a powerful effect on aluminum, mercury/gold alloys and lead. Don't try this at home.

Guide: No sex, or nudity

Here's The Lowedown on "Sleight" (R - 2016 - US)...Is that your card?

Genre: Action/Crime

My Score: 6.5

Cast=5 Acting=8 Plot=7 Ending=6 Story=5 Violence=7 Pace=7 F/X=8 Crime=7 Twist=5

A young man has to resort to illegal activities in order to support his sister after their parents pass away. When things turn from bad to worse, he must use his gifts to get out of a bad situation.

"It's just hard being a grown up sometimes." I kind of liked this...it really doesn't rewrite anything, though. It claims to completely change the superhero genre, but it's really an overused hard luck story about a kid growing up on the streets. The so called superhero element kind of takes a backseat until it's needed. If you're looking for a comic book movie...this is not for you. Although predictable, this is worth a look as a well-acted gangland movie with a little spice.

I saw "Sleight", starring Jacob Latimore-Collateral Beauty, The Maze Runner; Seychelle Gabriel-Falling Skies_tv, The Last Airbender; Dule Hill-Psych_tv, The West Wing_tv and Storm Reid-The Summoning, 12 Years a Slave.

This movie is about a street magician, Jacob, that sells drugs as a side gig to make enough money to take his sister, Storm, somewhere safer than where they are living now-lots of drug dealers operate in the area. Both of his parents are dead so his sister is his main concern. Jacob thinks he can just get out of the life at any time but his boss, Dule, keeps dragging him deeper into it and things are getting more violent. Seychelle plays Jacob's girlfriend, who helps motivate him to make a break from Dule and seek a better life. Jacob was also smart in school- he was good in science-and so he uses both his school smarts and magic tricks to try to make things better. I guess you could say that this is like if Houdini and Tony Stark combined their DNA, Jacob would be the result. It's rated "R" for language, drug content and violence and has a running time of 1 hour & 29 minutes. I don't think I would buy it on DVD-it's not quite a super hero movie, but it is close-but it would be a good rental.

Let me start by saying the only upside to this movie is that the main female protagonist (Seychelle Gabriel) was nice to look at because there won't be anything good said after that. Although the movie is not very predictable, it is bad. Very bad. This young man who looks about 15 years old is left to raise his sister after his parents' deaths so he turns to drug dealing and has to raise $45,000 in a week to avoid his boss killing him. His boss had already forced him to cut off the hand of a rival drug dealer and rather than raise enough money to buy a gun and kill his boss or just turn to the police, he actually attempts to raise the money, comes close, loses most of it, and has to concoct this mega plan to stop his boss from killing him all while getting his sister back after his boss kidnaps her. His sister is old enough to know who her uncles are. She didn't even call her brother to confirm someone else would be picking her up from school. The main character has telekinetic powers and still manages to get himself robbed. The writers can't be serious. The acting is bad as well, the movie is so stupid it should be considered a satirical comedy because you cannot seriously enjoy this unless you appreciate mind numbing entertainment which obviously some people do. The concept is stupid and overplayed, the plot is bad, the acting is bad, the dialogue is bad (one of the white drug dealers says "once my mixtape blows up"...), and casting a lawyer from the television series Suits (Dule Hill) as the primary antagonist is a joke. The ending is laughable, too. There are many ways to spend an hour and a half but this is not one I would ever recommend.

. . . that even young Urban Males who look like well-mannered, clean-cut school boys are Threats to Society. Looks are deceiving, SLEIGHT preaches. Despite being awarded a "free ride" to College, SLEIGHT's anti-hero "Bo" rejects it in favor of a Life of Crime. Though Bo is depicted as selling "Molly" and "Coke," SLEIGHT implies that Urbanites such as Bo would be more than happy to seduce, corrupt, and overdose Pale Suburban Yokels on Mayonnaise Packets, if only the Government would outlaw Mayo. Crime is the Guiding Light for SLEIGHT's protagonists. Bo might LOOK as if he would not harm a fly, but then he brutally whacks off a rival pusher's hand with five blows from a dull meat cleaver. Two minutes later Bo's shown enjoying premarital sex with his college drop-out lover, as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. No matter how many peanut inventions George W. Carver has under his belt, SLEIGHT shows that Urban Think Tanks Today innovate new things solely to aid and abet their Outlaw Activities. If you see SLEIGHT, better exit the theater with a brown paper bag over your head. Otherwise, people might accuse YOU of being Racist for devoting your money in support of such a Racist Program.

Kid from a nice family, who has enough education for a full scholarship, adores his little sister, and supporters her after his parents died by doing street magic and a little drug dealing... CUTS A GUYS FLICKING HAND OFF because his supplier tells him to?!?! I'm embarrassed to know Duke Hill thought this was a good script. Has a lot of potential from the beginning up to that part. I really wanted to give it a chance too despite the bad reviews, but it isn't just fantasy, it's ridiculous.

I watched this at home on BluRay from my local public library. My wife skipped, not her type of movie.

The story focuses on the poor side of town, Jacob Latimore is Bo, a smart high school graduate who takes care of his little sister. But Bo has to scratch for a living, he has been a Houdini fan and has developed a great facility of "sleight of hand" tricks and picks up cash as a street magician.

But Bo needs more if he and his little sister are to get out of that life and he earns it as a drug salesman. Sometimes late at night in an alley, often times in his car. But he gets greedy and gets on the wrong side of his dealer, Dulé Hill as very brutal Angelo. When someone moves into his territory and doesn't leave willingly Angelo has the man's hand cut off.

Bo has developed a trick that requires an electrical coil embedded in his shoulder. He can levitate small items like coins but he needs something much more powerful to combat Angelo, and gets help from his old high school science teacher.

Cute Seychelle Gabriel as Holly plays the love interest for Bo, and Storm Reid is effective in the small role as Bo's sister, Tina.

This movie was written and directed by young filmmakers trying to get established in the business, it is interesting enough but in the end relatively superficial, with not much lasting impression.