Charm City Kings Review

Charm City Kings is a drama movie and a film adaptation of the documentary 12 O'Clock Boys. The movie is produced by Overbrook Entertainment, Sony Pictures, and Warner Max and distributed by HBO Max. Charm City Kings is written by Sherman Payne and directed by Angel Manuel Soto.

The story is a young boy named Mouse wants to join the Baltimore dirt bike group called The Midnight Clique. Mouse is willing to do whatever it takes to join this group but his mom and cop mentor want something better for him. Will Mouse chose a different path or will he become the newest member of this gang?

Initial Reaction

The whole reason I wanted to review this was for three simple reasons. One, people seemed to like my review of HBO Max's previous movie An American Pickle. Two, I wanted to review another HBO Max movie. And three, after watching the trailer and reading the synopsis for the movie I was interested.

Cons

I've got nothing to say. Let's move on.

Middle Ground

The mix bag with the film is the dialogue. For a majority of the movie it's fine but there were quite a few times when it got repetitive.

Pros

One of the best things are Jahi Di'Allo Winston's performance. This kid was phenomenal! Whatever emotion he's supposed to have whether it'd be happy, angry, serious, or etc. he nails it. What I also liked about Charm City Kings is this is definitely a gut punch of a movie. Not only do the characters go on an emotional journey but you're also feeling what they're going through. So whenever you get the time to watch this expect to go on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Another aspect of the film was the father figure subplot between Blax and Detective Rivers. I liked that because it really added another challenge for Mouse. Does he go with the cop who's trying teach Mouse a better way or will he go with the cooler bike rider? It was a good lair added to the story. The final thing I'll give Charm City Kings credit for is the cinematography. I wasn't expecting the film to be shot in such a beautiful way.

So I think you should give Charm City Kings a watch. It has great performances (especially Winston's), it's a gut gut punch of emotions, the father figure subplot was a nice touch, and the cinematography was really good. A slight issue is the dialogue can feel like you've already heard this conversation before.

My final rating is Great

Okay, that's all for me. Come back on Monday, Oct 12th for my review of the horror/comedy, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.