Checkmate

I recommend watching this movie just so you can judge for yourself how bad it really is, five famous people in it but nobody did any good acting, that said, it had interesting ideas which kept my girlfriend and I watching it all the way through, I like how everything converged at the end but ultimately the bad acting ruined the entire movie.

Vinnie Jones does yet another bad film, Mischa Barton didn't do anything, Sean Astin was an interesting character but could have been better, Michael Pare hasn't improved since the eighties (loved Streets of Rage 1984) I got the impression the helicopter was the shadow of a cardboard cut out, I could go on but I think you need to see it for yourself, I gave it a 2 because it did keep me watching

It's funny that the movie references chess for its title, because there's barely any hint of intelligent present. Ambitiously, it mixes many subplots and alternating timelines together even though Checkmate can't even get one perspective right. Underutilized actors, excessive amount of profanity and utter lack of logic make this movie into a terribly sketchy experience.

Story revolves around the events of a bank heist. Unlike recent thrillers where there's a clear plan, Checkmate goes old school with mask and gun through the front door. There are a lot of subplots slapped together for any dramatic effect. They can't all miss their marks, right? Sadly, and incredibly, they can.

It's nearly amazing that not one character feels believable. You have the sniper priest, desperate thugs, mafia kingpins and poor sick kid, all of which have zero on-screen credibility. The pacing is completely off, it might try to shift between different perspectives for better development, but the shoddy delivery only makes narrative worse.

Script is all kind of swearwords. The most used lines are variation of "F this, F that". I'm not kidding, it's literally repetition of F-bomb while a few of more notable actors like Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones spew gibberish from facebook cat poster or random quote book. You'll hear crude profanity or pretentious bible quote for the entire movie as well as screeching repetitive soundtracks.

Then, there's the problem of the logic. The robbers put on their mask on the step of the back where camera and witness might spot them. They voluntarily run away from cover and shoot a la Rambo. There are so many things wrong with the logic, but the movie just brushes it off as though audience wouldn't notice.

Checkmate plays with mindless plots and dribbling profanity. It's a chain of awful sequences thrown randomly together that deserves no viewing.

A B-grade movie and a bad one at that. The film obviously had a small budget and it showed.

The film lacked atmosphere. There was no ambiance of background sounds, noise etc. The scenes outdoors where far too quiet. Plus where is the public? There were no people seen in the background. Making the scenes look obvious they were filed in a studio (rather than on location).

And what's worse than the acting was the lack of basic FX. Wait, I change that, the acting was worse.

Don't waste one and half hours of your time watching this. That time is better spent watching the grass grow.

This rubbish is so bad that I was not going to write a review, as I did not think I would be able to put how bad it is into words.

However, I felt that it was important to warm my fellow humans, and so decided to try.

If I said that a bunch of schoolchildren could do better, I would be insulting all schoolchildren everywhere.

If you compared this rubbish to the first day of an acting school course, you would expect that the lecturer would have gone out the back and committed suicide half way through, just to avoid the second half. 80% of the dialogue consists of the word f#ck....and all it's derivatives.

Not only is there no story, but what there is is so confusing as to be a health hazard. Do not even look for acting. It simply is non existent. Please, do not be duped by the inclusion of Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones. At this point, moviegoers must accept that if either one or both of them are in a movie that it is a very good reason to avoid it at all costs. They are not even trying to hide the fact anymore that they are simply selling their names to absolute rubbish, and are quite happy to walk away with a fat cheque, and could not give a damn about their fans. It is truly sad.

Please....please...do not be tempted to spend hard earned cash on this tripe, just so these idiots can laugh all the way to the bank. You will never forgive yourself for wasting precious time and money on the worst trash ever to hit the screen.

I couldn't think of a good way to word it until I read what Author: LumpyMusic from Phoenix Arizona USA said. "Disconnected sub-stories" is the bottom line. One story two guys playing chess signing a document. Then their is the girl with the sword who fights everyone else with a sword or stick. Then you have the bank robbery with nothing but guns. I can't put two and two together and figure what they have in common. I thought with the popular cast members it would be a good A movie maybe even an A-. I was wrong, it wasn't even a good B movie. Are there such things as a C movie? Because if there is I wouldn't even give it a C. It get a big fat F from me for failed.