Popular reviews

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  Review by Aaron King ★★★½ 1

  A misleading film title. They never even looked for the guy.

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  Review by Gabriel Gundacker 7

  Valuably sincere chess movie. Stoked bc chess is awesome. Very sweet stuff going on here. Saccharine score sometimes too heavy sometimes perfect. Watched while moving my pokémon cards from their original (1998) binder into a newer, safer one. About 5 cards away from the original 151. Some real gems, all in great condition. Looking to trade all of them for one holographic Vileplume PSA 10. LMK

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  Review by David Sims ★★★★ 4

  one of the best films about Manhattan in the 90s along with Men in Black

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  Review by Bryce Receveur ★★★★½ 8

  Chess is actually pretty badass guys.

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  Review by Rafael Jovine ★★★½ 2

  The directorial debut by the great screenwriter Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, The Night Of, Moneyball) and holding a whooping 100% Rotten Tomatoes score, needless to say this movie was pretty hyped for me.

  And starting with the positives, most of the performances are really good. After the whole Baseball aspect was introduced, I legit thought this would be a movie where this kid would have to battle with his father to get the chance to play chess or something, so when the father himself (well played by David Rossi himself, Joe Mantegna), I genuinely didn’t expect that twist. That being said, the movie doesn’t shy away about the fact Chess is a very demanding game and rather than making the…

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  Review by GordoFlower ★★★½

  The Queen's Gambit really got me thinking all chess prodigies have a fabulous wardrobe. This kid can't dress for shit.

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  Review by Kunga Sagar ★★★★

  I could be hyping up my man Steve Zaillian here, but what a fantastic directorial debut! Based off the book written by Fred Waitzkin, father of Josh Waitzkin, Zaillian’s utterly gripping script and poised direction make for a must watch sports movie. Pair that with a star studded cast, or at least a cast full of amazing journeymen actors and you can understand why I have rated this so highly (and why Roger Ebert also gave it 4 stars).

  Time to address the elephant in the room: The Queen’s Gambit. Yes I saw the show, yes I really enjoyed it, and yes it prompted me to watch this movie that I had been putting off for too long. I’d look…

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  Review by Nicolás Vargas ★★★

  You can't just throw that much hair on Ben Kingsley and act like nothing's up.

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  Review by Christian Ryan ★★★★ 29

  When we were kids, my dad took my brothers and me down to Mexico to take in some local color. About an hour after releasing us bulls into the china shops, he found himself the begrudging new owner of a recently damaged, pricey marble chess set. Upon our return, as punishment for our misbehavior, the old man sat us all down and forced us to learn the game.

  I was pretty good back in those days, or, as I’m beginning to learn, my opponents were pretty bad. I even won a little tournament my elementary school put on. But over the years I just kinda lost interest and stopped playing; it’s been decades since I’ve touched a chess piece.

  You…

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  Review by Brian Formo ★★★½ 3

  Some kids/adults respond to rigidity, some wanna keep things loose and uncommitted, and some wanna combine what they learned in the street with what they learned in class and still offer a draw because the pressure of winning isn't as fun as the game itself.

  My god, the character actors that were assembled here! Steven Zaillian was a well known script doctor in Hollywood so despite only having a few actual credits under his belt, he'd worked in the studio system for decades on high profile projects without credit, and was set up with a stunning cast for his directorial debut. A who's who of character actors from the early 90s from the David Mamet players (Joe Mantegna and William…

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  Review by russman ★★★ 3

  My favorite sport is Chessboxing

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  Review by Marcin Wichary ★★★★ 7

  “It doesn’t mean anything, it’s just a game.”
  “No, it isn’t.”

  This movie is about chess the same way Moneyball was about baseball. And yet, not being a player myself, it made me think of what might it mean for chess to be one’s life’s companion, to be able to feel the chessboard like not very many people do, to take lessons from all the games of chess back into the real life.

  My favourite moments in the movie were those glimpses of chess being something more, something better, something beautiful: an early speed chess game interrupted by rain; a tower made for fun out of chess pieces; the rapid-fire, almost instinctive exchanges of moves.

  Excellent cast of actors and characters, not to mention cameos from many famous chess players. Worth checking out. The only major problem is James Horner phoning it in, but hey, not the first time either. Just don’t watch it straight after Field of dreams.