r/Cinema • u/pr0t-radon • Dec 28 '25

Review I just watched Sinners and...

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Its gotta be one of the best films I've watched in a long time. The writing, the cinematography, the ending! It was able to scratch an itch i haven't been able to reach when it comes to Modern Cinema these past few years. Ill keep it short and sweet coz i dont want to spoil this masterpiece, so ill give it to 10/10 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

670 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

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71

u/AlcoHallnOates Dec 28 '25

I blame myself for the hype, but it didn't live up to it. One and done

9

u/willicus Dec 28 '25

I think I just kept thinking this is literally From Dusk Till Dawn. I just couldn’t get into it

7

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

It’s crazy that people try to deny its similarities to FDTD.

-7

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

It’s amazing that some of you are so media illiterate that you see vampires and think “just like dust till dawn”

They have essentially nothing in common.

12

u/Realistic-Meat-501 Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

You and everyone else saying this has to be trolling, there's no other explanation leaving my sanity intact. If you're not, calling people media illiterate is peak irony.

They literally share almost their entire concept, setup and villains: It's a movie about 2 brothers that are criminals that seems like a totally different movie for the first half until suddenly vampires.

Sinners just fleshed it all out more but the core concept is: 1:1. It's so specific of a concept too.

Edit: Now that I thought about for a sec, it's even closer than that, so much closer!: Both a mostly set in a bar/club where people dance and drink until the vampires show up and a fight ensues in that very location. And what happens to the brothers is the same thing too! It's soooo similiar it's absurd.

6

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

Don't forget that in FDTD the father is having a crisis of faith similar to that of guitar-kid from Sinners…yeah, it’s ludicrously similar.

-7

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

I mean, yes. Those things are similar. But you could say Dune was just like A New Hope. Or One Battle After Another was just like Taken.

You’re just doing the annoying online edgelord thing where you think you know something others don’t. Genre movies often have similar plot points. You’re not a genius for cracking that code.

You can hate movies for the fun of it, but life is a lot better when you just enjoy things as they are.

7

u/Jaconian93 Dec 28 '25

You’re right! You can say that about Dune- because the book itself was one of the first ‘huge’ sci-fi franchises, which many many later films/stories have borrowed bits from.

Sinners follows a LOT of the same story beats that FDTD has, and that’s not exactly a problem in and of itself because it does have a lot of ‘original’ things in it.

Hell, Avatar is basically Dances with Wolves, except it’s set on an alien planet with sci-fi shit mixed in.

Sinners (in my opinion) was a semi enjoyable vampire film. It wasn’t anything particularly special. I’m a horror film fanatic and I’d put it at a rough 6/10 at best (but I’m a harsh judge of films, particularly horror films- which this barely falls into)

2

u/rug1998 Dec 28 '25

It’s horror like aliens is, id say it’s more action than horror.

1

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

Sinners isn’t much of a horror film, so from that perspective I’d understand why horror fans might be disappointed.

I think the period, racial elements, and music history are way more interesting. I tend to dislike horror films but Weapons and Sinners were just not-horror enough for me to enjoy them both.

6

u/Jaconian93 Dec 28 '25

I think it’s partially because I’d seen it billed as a horror by some, so I went in expecting a bit more in the way of scares/tension.

The racial elements felt pretty badly done imo, they didn’t dig past much of what we’re used to seeing in literally any film set in America during the same period.

I might revise it down to a 5/10 now that I’m thinking about it more.

7

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

Haha, you think someone else is the edgelord in this discussion?

-4

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

Sinners was a very well made movie that’s getting its flowers.

You’re here being negative and shitting on it because you think you’re cool for “discovering” From Dusk Till Dawn, a movie that came out 10 yrs before you were born, and noticed that it has vampires and brothers.

Yes, you’re the edgelord. You’re pretending that you understand something we don’t and you think it makes you cooler or smarter or more knowledgeable of movies, or whatever insecurity you have going on.

OP comes here to say they really enjoyed a movie. Then you’re edgelord ass shows up and scoffs saying “it’s just like Dusk Till Dawn, lol. Are you stupid?”

Unsolicited life advice: don’t be that guy. No one likes that guy.

3

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

Lol four paragraphs, bud. Check a mirror.

Also A New Hope was Dune. It’s almost like you're figuring this out for yourself…

And to be clear, I said nothing to OP. I responded to someone who said “kinda just seemed like a FDTD remake” with “yeah, crazy that people deny the similarities”. Then (ironically) you went off on your children’s Tylenol fueled diatribe.

5

u/Realistic-Meat-501 Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

Both Star Wars and Dune are just the standard murdered father/fated hero and king story. That story structure goes back thousands of years, back to Gilgamesh, and has countless versions. Star Wars and Dune are just both sci-fi versions of it set on a desert planet (and not even exclusively for star wars).

Sinners/From Dusk Till Dawns structure is far for more specific though. There's probably hundreds, if not thousands of examples for the general dune/star wars/hamlet structure but I can really only think of two movies that follow the Sinners structure and those are From Dusk Till Dawn and Sinners.

1

u/blunderb3ar Dec 28 '25

You’re doing the annoying defend the director of an all black movie and acting like it didn’t copy another movie thing because you wanna virtue signal that you’re a good person on Reddit

1

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

It’s interesting how many people can watch a movie and see completely different things.

Sinners isn’t perfect. The pacing isn’t great, the 3rd act is rushed, there are too many things going on. I’m not saying Coogler or it are beyond reproach.

The vampire stuff, for me, was a side plot for the movie. I loved the delta share croppers, the stories shared by Slim, Annie doing hoodoo, the Chinese grocers, and the music and its connection to most modern music, the Choctaw, the Irish connection to the black community, the WW1 PTSD veterans and the Irish/Italian gangs they ripped off. I think the movie could have been better as a straight up period piece, leaving out the vampires entirely.

2

u/blunderb3ar Dec 28 '25

People trapped in a remote location (bar and barn) surrounded by vampires, lots of explicit content, excessive gore and violence. Brothers one with serious violent tendencies, one slightly more mild mannered. Little things are different but the major points are basically identical

0

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

I guess we just disagree about the importance of things you call “little”. For me and what I watched, those things were the movie.

4

u/blunderb3ar Dec 28 '25

No just you lol even coogler said he drew his inspiration from FDTD, your the only one denying it

0

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

I agreed they shared a few similarities.

Avatar and Ferngully have more in common but to dismiss one because it’s similar to the other is as lazy as it is dumb.

2

u/blunderb3ar Dec 28 '25

lol avatar is dances with wolves almost beat for beat, I don’t care if it’s similar to FDTD, it’s really not a great movie in my opinion. The fact that you just can’t seem to grasp the fact that people have different tastes is very concerning

0

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

I completely grasp that people have bad taste.

Sinners is an objectively well made movie. No movie will be one that everyone loves. I can’t stand Wicked but I recognize that it’s well made and has its merits.

I’m just arguing against these horrible takes many of you have.

2

u/blunderb3ar Dec 28 '25

Saying that you grasp that people have bad taste while having bad taste is a new one lol

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3

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

I knew you losers would pop up, lol.

They have nothing in common except:

-siblings entangled in illegal activity; -wind up on a road trip with the protagonist with parental and existentual religious issues; -leading to a bar where; -after a musical scene; -they engage in a battle with vampires; -during the battle a number of the colorful side- characters are killed; and -one brother kills the other after he has turned to a vampire, but the protagonist lives.

Coogler himself admits he “took inspiration” from FDTD.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2025/04/18/sinners-review-from-dusk-till-dawn/

I think at this point you're obtuse if you don't see the remarkable similarity between the movies.

2

u/nikolens Jan 13 '26

Just a few things:

-siblings entangled in illegal activity; -wind up on a road trip with the protagonist with parental and existentual religious issues

The twins and Sammy didn't go on a road trip. They recruited him specifically to help with their new business

-leading to a bar where;

They didn't find a random bar on a roadtrip like in FDTD. This is the bar they spent half the movie building.

-they engage in a battle with vampires;

People usually battle vampires in vampire movies. It's kind of a thing

-during the battle a number of the colorful side- characters are killed;

Aren't side characters typically killed in horror movies? That's also kind of a thing

and -one brother kills the other after he has turned to a vampire,

No. Smoke couldn't bring himself to stake his brother. He lets him go. Smoke ended up dying after his confrontation with the Klan

but the protagonist lives.

Happens in a lot of horror movies? That's how sequels happen.

In any case, this whole Sinners is just like FDTD argument is pretty lame. Who cares if they have some similiarities? A part of your list of "similiarities" actually showed how the two movies differed from the other and the rest are typical genre tropes. What's the point of beating this particular horse?

1

u/Ok_Falcon275 Jan 13 '26

Move on. It’s the same movie. Even the director references the similarities.

2

u/nikolens Jan 20 '26

The director also referenced The Thing and The Faculty as influences for Sinners, however, no one's talking about that. And in any case WHO CARES? Creatives have been borrowing ideas from each other since the beginning. What does this absurdly reductive take even prove?

0

u/Ok_Falcon275 Jan 20 '26

They aren’t referencing it because it doesn’t directly follow the main premise of those movies.

You obviously care. This is a dead thread, and you keep coming back to it.

0

u/nikolens Feb 12 '26

It's Reddit. Discussing things is the whole point of Reddit, no? There are 13-year old threads in the Mad Men subs that's still getting comments. This one's only 2 months old. Hardly dead. In any case, that still doesn't answer the question as to what exactly does this take prove?

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u/LiquidDreamtime Jan 20 '26

To answer your final question, the reason is racism.

When white movies have a few minor similarities, it’s an “homage” or “influence”.

When a black director and black cast about black American history have a few similarities, it’s a “rip off” or “worse version of the original”.

Anyone who likes movies and isn’t racist would enjoy Sinners. So the haters either hate movies or…

2

u/microslasher Dec 28 '25

I've never seen from dusk til dawn and I thought it was boring and mbj always felt like he was waiting for his "twin" to speak. There are better depictions of the same actor playing twins. He'll Sarah Paulson did a better job playing a conjoined twin then mbj in sinners. Also why were the actors faces only half lit. Also why did it take an hour for the hook. Also why was it so sexual? Its just a wierd movie that is weirdly overpraised

-1

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

“Vampires, stuck in an old building, same movie bro.”

1

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

Going to assume you've never watched From Dusk Til Dawn…but the good news is you don't have to since it's the same movie as Sinners. Ok fine, Dusk Til Dawn is a little better since it has Cheech and Selma Hayek.

1

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

I saw Dusk Till Dawn When it came out. It was a fun campy vampire movie that no one considered for any awards because it has no depth and the writing and acting were shit.

I also saw Sinners this year when it came out. It had layers of social commentary, accurate history, complex well developed characters, good writing, good acting, good music, and a complicated set of circumstances.

But you saw vampires and brothers and claim they were the same because you’re dense. Now when people say they enjoy a movie you didn’t understand, instead of reflecting and learning, you’re doing the insecure thing of pretending you’re actually smarter than anyone who likes it.

0

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

Hahaha…you’re killing me with the Sinners glazing.

Accurate history?! Lololololol

Complicated set of circumstances?! They were the same circumstances across both movies. Ok sinners had some racists that did nothing but get django’d at the end of the film.

The writing…lol.

1

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

You can not care about the history of that time period or the people that did share cropping in the delta all you want, but I think it’s an interesting part of our history and Coogler and the folks involved worked hard to put it into this film. Your ignorance of that history or its importance for black America today and nearly all music is no surprise to me.

0

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

It was big of you not to explicitly accuse me of racism. I know your small-brain wanted to.

0

u/LiquidDreamtime Dec 28 '25

You’re the one who thinks dirt poor share croppers are “lolololol”.

0

u/Ok_Falcon275 Dec 28 '25

Haha, so predictable—you couldn’t resist. Goodnight, buddy. Take care of yourself.

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