I've been kind of waffling on seeing it..........looks like either a great historical flick or a horror film, and I'm not into modern day horror films (LOVE the 1930's/40's classics).  Might just check it out, it's showing just a few miles from me.  Thanks for the feedback.

If Buddy agreed to do it, it must have purpose

Keep the blues alive!

On my list for sure

I rented Sinners tonight because it's come down to $5.99 rental.  I prefer watching movies at home anyway.

It's like nothing I have ever seen, and I liked the first half of it:  A very interesting depiction of the black blues scene in Clarksdale, Mississippi in the early 1930's.  But then it deteriorated into a ridiculous, gory bloodletting full of nothing but blood thirsty vampires.  It's funny you know, I was just mentioning the other day with the lady who cuts my hair that I saw the original zombie film, The Night Of The Living Dead, right around when it was released in the late 60's.  They used to show it every Friday night at midnight at the only theatre in Simi Valley.  It was a novelty then, and a true original then.  What is this obsession with zombie films in youth culture today?  How many have there been over the last 25 years or so?  I bet it would be impossible to even count them all.

All the gratuitous violence of Sinners really turned me off, and with 30 minutes left in the film, I sat there just waiting for it to be over.  Honestly, I have a hard time understanding the rave reviews about this film.  Why couldn't they make what the movie started out to be:  An interesting tale of the 30's black blues scene, and weave an interesting personal tale into it regarding the characters involved.  Instead of people eating each other, stabbing each other, shooting each other.  I absolutely hate where Hollywood has taken this genre.  I'm a big fan of the early horror classics, and I have the original Dracula and Wolfman on DVD.  

Yes, Buddy Guy appears at the end of the film.  He's cast as the "Saviour" of the blues.  But it's only a cameo role, and certainly not enough to salvage this film from all the bloodletting.

@robslob Being a fan of both Blues and Horror (and, yeah - it did get a little gory) I enjoyed it.

If you watched it based on my recommendation, I'll send you the $6.00.  Seems the least I could do.

EDIT:  Did you watch through the end of the credits?  

Seriously - mailing addy and I'll make it up to ya. 😉 

@rusty:  Save your $6.00.  You were only one of the reasons I rented it.  The bass player (an extremely accomplished black dude) who often plays at the local El Paso blues bar gave it a strong recommendation only a week ago.  And it got very favorable reviews in the press (Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 97% thumbs up, which is hard for me to fathom but it's true).  And I wanted to see it anyway out of curiosity.  Just NOT my thang, as you could see.

@robslob 

I watched it recently and absolutely loved it. It's not intended to be just about 1930s blues music, so you're going to be disappointed if that's what you are expecting, and the trailers don't hide it's a vampire movie.

But it is about generational tradition, good and bad. The scene where it moves through centuries of different musical tradition was one of the most amazing sequences I've seen/ The ghosts of our ancestors are there with us in our music of today and tomorrow, really inspired. I agree the movie loses a little of its wonder once the vampires show up, similar to From Dusk Til Dawn's u-turn from a Jim Thompson caper to vampire bar. But the vampires aren't just random horror, it's all metaphor for sin. Just as the music is handed down, like the sinful blues music, so are generational traumas of racism and oppression. You even see that in the vampires' Appalachian folk number. Stack and Smoke are already sinners when we meet them and doomed.

And it might seem pretentious to make a horror movie about race, but most horror movies are metaphors for human behavior and trauma. The original Night of the Living Dead is very much about race. Dawn of the Dead features zombies in a mall, it's about mindless consumerism. It Follows is about the shame of STDs. The Babadook is all about grief and mental illness. Even Little Shop of Horrors is a Faustian parable about greed. Werewolf movies are about embracing primal urges. And vampires are almost always about embracing sin - lust, gluttony, greed - in order to live forever, i.e., selling your soul to the devil. Just like the legend of Robert Johnson. It might be heavy handed, but it worked for me. And the ending with Buddy Guy and Kingfish was an unexpected treat.

But hey, I totally get it's not everyone's thing. I'm not trying to change your mind, just what I appreciated about it. I do agree there are way too many zombie movies/shows. Every since 28 Days Later made zombies fast they've been cranking them out, probably because they are cheap to make.

When I offered a refund I was not being snarky, melodramatic etc.  It's an offer that I usually extend to friends to convince them to try music, cinema, food etc. that I am totally sold on.  I've had very few takers!  I'm just glad that Rob streamed it instead of paying full theater price!  I can handle $6, but theater, popcorn and drink for 2?  We'd be looking at about $45!  😉 

@porkchopbob:  As always, I respect your angle, and we will agree to disagree, as gentlemen should.  That being said, if I want horror, I'll turn to my originals, Dracula and Wolfman.  There is not ONE drop of blood shown in either, despite the first one being a vampire film, the other about a murderous werewolf.  It was all done with atmosphere, dialogue, music, and great acting.  Those two films are nothing short of CLASSICS.  And Night Of The Living Dead gave me all the flesh eating zombies that I will ever need to see in one lifetime.  For me, Sinners is way, WAY over the top, and I don't care what kind of subliminal message they were trying to drive home.

Finally saw it this past weekend --- one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen in a long time

Great cinematography 

The music is terrific and that scene mashing up historical genres as someone already mentioned is brilliant 

Scary in a jump in your seat sort of way but not terrifying or sickening 

Michael B Jordan cemented himself as a generational actor, imo, with this performance 

Only thing I didn't follow was the last scene --- did Buddy Guy's character sell his soul years earlier and thus was spared?

@islalala Here is a link to a critical synopsis of the entire film.  Below that, an excerpt of the interpretation that you seek:

https://www.vulture.com/article/sinners-post-credits-scenes-explained.html

... After the first fade to black, Coogler takes us about sixty years into the future, to Chicago in 1992. Jazz legend George “Buddy” Guy — playing older Sammie, though he’s credited on IMDb as “Jazz Musician,” which implies that Guy maybe fought vampires in his youth — plucks away at a guitar in a bar. As the night winds down, two visitors pop by: Stack and Mary, dressed in lavish, colorful ’90s clothing. It turns out neither perished that night in the speakeasy — Mary got away before dawn and Stack struck a deal with his brother. Rather than kill his undead twin, Smoke instead told Stack he’d let him get away so long as he let Sammie live a full life. Though this seemingly goes against what Irish vampire gang leader Remmick (Jack O’Connell) tells Smoke — that the vampires have a kind of democratic socialist thing going on where they don’t splinter into factions — it seems as though Stack forgoes the group to honor Smoke, who he still loves, and his lingering fondness for his little cousin.

With his side of the bargain now met, Stack has come to see Sammie play one last time before drifting back into the Only Lovers Left Alive-type of lifestyle — aka looking cool, hanging out, and listening to live music, as one might assume a chill vampire would do if they had all of eternity ahead of them — he and Mary have taken up in their decades of vampiredom. They offer Sammie the immortality they’ve grown to cherish, but he refuses. He tells his cousin that up until the violence started, that night at the juke joint was the greatest of his life. Stack agrees: it’s the last time he saw his brother.

In the final post-credits scene, we see Sammie as a young man again, singing and playing “This Little Light of Mine” on the guitar we last saw smashed to bits after that violent night at the juke joint. As the prologue of the film explains, there are musicians whose skill can heal communities but also summon evil: we know that Sammie is one such musician. It’s a nice to see Caton playing and singing again, his debut role a remarkable introduction to this young actor. But the scene itself could be read as a little ambiguous, too: is Sammie trying to pierce the veil again, playing a song that could both foster community but also bring back the vampires? Is it just another showcase for Caton in his first feature? Who might be waiting on the threshold of his father’s church when the song is over? We don’t see what comes next — but Sammie does

****

I could've written my own explanation, but I usually leave cinema and literature reviews and interpretations to the pros.  😉 

Thanks Rusty, but since when do vampires make deals to spare people's lives?

Not buying it.... I like my ending better 😆 

Posted by: @robslob

↑

@porkchopbob:  As always, I respect your angle, and we will agree to disagree, as gentlemen should.  That being said, if I want horror, I'll turn to my originals, Dracula and Wolfman.  There is not ONE drop of blood shown in either, despite the first one being a vampire film, the other about a murderous werewolf.  It was all done with atmosphere, dialogue, music, and great acting.  Those two films are nothing short of CLASSICS.  And Night Of The Living Dead gave me all the flesh eating zombies that I will ever need to see in one lifetime.  For me, Sinners is way, WAY over the top, and I don't care what kind of subliminal message they were trying to drive home.

Agreed Rob, couldn't get through it.