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.
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.