Haven't seen this. Is this sort of like "Fresh" (1994) with magic tricks?

ya I wandered away from it and did not finish

@warrior-poet said:

Haven't seen this. Is this sort of like "Fresh" (1994) with magic tricks?

This is almost the same film as Fresh (1994), but with fantasy magic added. That's what I would recommend to anyone thinking of paying $14.99 on Amazon VOD for Sleight, instead watch Fresh(1994) it's only $1.99 and has Sam Jackson and Giancarlo Esposito (or as Hector Salamanca would say "the chicken man").

Sleight is watchable, but it carried an identity problem, it had no idea what kind of film it wanted to be. The lead Jacob Latimore did some extremely dumb stuff to get him in trouble for no good reason which in turn made him lack empathy. I'd say more, but I don't want to spoil anything, just don't forfeit $14.99 to see it, wait and it'll drop soon enough.

@ThrillKillz said:

Sleight has the promise to achieve great things and deliver great entertainment, but it chooses to be a mediocre crime/drama, which is all that it is in the end, ultimately forgettable. The magic part is pure fantasy and the limited explanation of his "source" for this magic is extremely implausibly impossible, although that wasn't why the film kinda failed(I gave it a 5/10). It's the use of constant ghetto cliches to move/motivate our protagonist, one that I wasn't even rooting for.

This kid is blessed with skill and opportunity, but decides selling drugs is better than accepting his scholarship. Of course sh!t is gonna go bad, you don't cross many retired drug dealers. A wasted opportunity imo

Yeah. Mostly agree. Not a bad movie, but I am tired of movies with black protagonists featuring some form of thugs n drugs or hood life. But even so, I was really hoping he actually had superpowers. THAT would have been something new.

@cswood said:

Yeah. Mostly agree. Not a bad movie, but I am tired of movies with black protagonists featuring some form of thugs n drugs or hood life. But even so, I was really hoping he actually had superpowers. THAT would have been something new.

Yea, if it were switched and it happened to be a white kid you wouldn't see those cliche ghetto drug scenarios and that is really is f'ked up to think about. I know people b!tch about all sorts of whitewashing in film which is something I don't have much of an opinion on either way, but they pay no attention to how, when a black kid does manage to get the part, he and his culture are always subject to the same exact cliches and ignorance and it doesn't seem to bother the black population.

I hoped it was superpowers until it showed him with this ridiculous implant in his arm that's extremely infected and oh forget about the science they used, a ten year old wouldn't settle for that excuse. It could have been a great film if it were made by the right people and intelligently written.

there is this about a street thug with a drug problem that has super powers

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/367551-american-hero

@CaseyJones said:

there is this about a street thug with a drug problem that has super powers

https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/367551-american-hero

Interesting looking film recommendation, even if by accident, I'm gonna watch it today. I'm not sure how I missed it.

The thing that I got from watching the American Hero trailer was that Dorff's character is portrayed as a white trash drug abuser VS Sleight's character is all about the benjamins, selling, hustling. Nonetheless I can see many parallels between these two films.

OT a bit, but when was the last time anyone saw a film with a black character who buys his drugs from a white guy? Curious thing that is.....

@ThrillKillz said:

OT a bit, but when was the last time anyone saw a film with a black character who buys his drugs from a white guy? Curious thing that is.....

LOL, or a woman for that case.

But just to reiterate, the main reason why Sleight interested me is because I thought it was about a young black kid who gets superpowers which excited me because we are living in the age of superhero films and I haven't seen any recent movies centered around a young black kid who gets superpowers. Hell, I can't think of ANY period (does The Last Dragon count?)

The movie probably would have made more money if he had superpowers.