I watched this film simply on the recommendation of a dear friend who knows I have a thing for elements of chess in a movie, either as supporting theme or a cameo, or as the centerpiece, if you will. The script was good, and delivered and filmed well enough, though a bit too simplistic for me and I felt I knew where the story was going too easily. It felt like a diet movie. I wasn't about to gain any mental weight trying to decipher plot twists or subtle character alleys. That's not harsh, it's just how I saw it. Most of my attention was on the analogy of chess pieces to the unfolding plot of teenage girl against the wickedness all about her. In her own family! For the life of me, I spent the better part of the credits going back and forth trying to find the source of the chess "poem," but never got anything definitive other than the script.And don't think you're going to SEE a lot of strategic chess scenes. You have to listen to the poem interwoven throughout for the saving grace.I found the cinematography crisp, and enjoyed the opening landscapes with a darker tie-in further into the movie.The music was good, and per the credits, mostly original too!

...pretender to the throne of films like "Winter's Bone," this predictable thriller from writer/director Mark "The Killing Jar" Young and his regular cinematography collaborator Gregg "Ditto" Easterbrook isn't a terrible watch, but it's a dispensable one. The cast does well enough with their roles (although Sean "LotR" Bean seems a bit bored with it all), Easterbrook's DP work is at times quite beautiful, and I'm not really faulting Young's direction. Nonetheless, nothing really quite jells; I couldn't manage to buy into this world of backwoods meth labs and a pretty little thing who would settle for ten bucks a pop to be a drug mule. If you're a fan of any of the actors, I suppose it's not going to embarrass any of them too much, but this is one of those films that you're going to forget almost as soon as you've finished viewing it.

"Lose not the Queen, for ten to one... if she be lost, the game is gone." "Wicked Blood" is a standard mafia movie, but then on a smaller scale. The story of the teenage girl Hannah (Abigail Breslin) who's being taken care of, after the loss of her parents, by her uncle Donny (Lew Temple), which has the appearance of Dr. Emmett Brown from "Back to the Future" but with too much "hillbilly crack" in his system. And then there's also Uncle Frank (Sean Bean). Frank is the local bad guy and head of a mini gang of mobsters. Besides running a striptease tent he has also a lucrative business as manufacturer and supplier of crack. The one who assists him throughout the film is his somewhat crazy, retarded younger brother Bobby (Jake Busey),. Apparently Bobby became slower after Hannah's mother bashed his head with a baseball bat.Hannah is a passionate chess player (something she probably inherited from Donny who once was State Champion), and she applies the rules of this game in her daily life. Thoughtful and with reason she performs every next move. Eventually, she devises a sophisticated plan to escape from this violent, drug-related world. Throw in an undercover agent, an assault on Hannah's sister and the final revenge, and you have a complete picture of this standard crime film. A film with a story like there are already a thousand made of.And yet it's not an unpleasant film. And that's thanks to Abigail Breslin who manages to give shape to the character Hannah in a natural and wonderful way. She reminded me of Saoirse Ronan repeatedly. She also has that innocent look, that determination and the all-pervading calmness. Maybe Ronan outclasses her a bit but only with a small lead. Despite the fact that the whole story is a bit exaggerated, improbable at times and thinking about it after wards sometimes pretty laughable, the acting of Abigail Breslin was very convincing and plausible. A small, young girl only skilled in chess who goes to battle against a bunch of ruthless drug gangsters, who are not shy to liquidate someone who complains to much, is something that only could happen to Nancy Drew.The one I enjoyed the most, was Lew Temple as the crazy, drug addicted low-life Donny. The chess games with Hannah briefly hinted a different picture of him though. That of a reasonably intelligent man who, because of past events and the current situation he is experiencing, recreated the individual as we see it now. The moments when he takes a shot (probably to check the quality) and starts to thrash about, accompanied by loud rock music, I found grandiose.Sean Bean (Who I've recently saw in CleanSkin) looks like Boromir teleported into modern times. The same faraway look and stoic calmness he constantly shows. I expected him declaring a sentence like "One does not simply ... steal my drugs" any moment.Despite the mediocre storyline and some irritating (The city where it all takes place is apparently so deserted and desolate as a ghost town along Route 66. Totally no inhabitants to detect) and hilarious (The FBI infiltrating such a crappy,small gang.) moments, it's still a movie you continue to watch. And that is merely due to the solid commitment of the actors and actresses.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be/

My first thought that this movie gave me was that someone must have done something pretty bad for this little girl to have done that. This movie is carried from start to finish on the hard working shoulders of Abigail Breslin who takes you on this journey with her that Mr. Young has nicely crafted, and done a decent job of directing. The supporting cast are all OK, but they are only there to support the Queen. Nice chess poetry, a bit forced, but it plays out well, and as most would hope. I Enjoyed this movie, and recommend it to all afternoon movie fans. This is not a big drama that will have you weeping for the characters, but is a decent little two against the middle story. Some parts don't work because such a master of her board should have known more about what all the pieces were doing, though things move along fast enough that this can be ignored.Jesse of www.jesse.ca