Message from the King

2017
6.4| 1h42m| en
Details

On a relentless quest to avenge his sister's murder, a man from Cape Town infiltrates a sprawling network of lowlifes and elites in Los Angeles.

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Reviews

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story
ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
masonfisk Even Chadwick Boseman's has had a clunker or 2 in his closet before hitting it big as the go to leading man he's become so one will forgive this effort for giving him a decent starring role only to have it squandered by a 'been there, done that' plot chronicling a foreigner's journey to find his lost sister. A game cast can't save this tripe but just by the law of averages, Chadwick will do better.
don_juan All in all I liked the movie, which was a good old fashioned payback movie. Man avenging a loved one. *SPOILERS* However, some things leave you confused. Firstly, the main character's sister is tortured, beaten and murdered, and you never really find out why this overkill. You do find out why the bad guys want her out of the way, but not why the hatred with which she was killed (which the killers were specifically instructed to do). Secondly, there are numerous bad guys (the dentist gangster, the movie producer, the local hoods, the politician), and you don't fully find out who is working. Thirdly, the "rescue" of Armande, and him running away, leaves you with a "what? What happened? Is that it?" feeling. It seems like the filmmakers tried to have a shocking reveal similar to 8mm, but in my opinion they failed to deliver. The actions scenes are quite good though. I give it a 6/10.
sanjin_9632 Fabrice Du Welz (director) is good at portraying violence and brutality. I saw Alleluia and liked it. Message From The King is the logical step further in his directing career. Boseman was good, I imagine he used this role to prepare for Black Panther. The accent and everything. The story's obvious and the ending predictable, but that still doesn't mean it's not worth watching. Mostly revenge flicks are poorly made. Not the case here. LA as a monster city might be hell on earth by any North American definition, but I imagine Cape Town (especially Cape Flats) to be actual hell. Now that would've been an interesting movie. One about where King's actually from. Where HE lives (or survives) each day.Actually pretty good flick. Most Netflix movies aren't worth a mention, but every now and then there's one where they actually get it right. 6.8/10
jhinnua *There is no way I can comment on this film without SPOILERS so read at own risk*I had really high hopes for this film based on the trailers. Possibly too high. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had none.Unlikely.This movie left me with a lot of questions, but before we get to that I want to say some of the things I enjoyed.A story with black characters not based on traditional stereotypes! That I know of anyway. I'm not South African. The siblings tattoo idea. I like the symbolism (intended or not) of how each sibling ends up seeing, hearing, or speaking evil. Great cast overall. Would not change the chemistry. The use of a bike chain as a weapon. The good guy didn't really win, and probably made certain characters lives worse. I'm a bit torn though as well because we're still seeing more whites 'win' than black in movies...so as much as I like the end, it was bittersweet.Armand. For some reason he turned into my favorite character even though he had no lines.That being said...The story did not seem to know how it wanted to tell itself. There were several . I don't know if this was writer or director error, or if it was intentional, but the lack of certain realism pulled me from the movie and kept me from my usual suspension of reality.First: The border security...like what? He got let into the country after not answering any questions? He got moved to an interrogation room and wasn't finger printed? They would have known he was a detective. I don't understand his need to lie about this. There is no motive. Did he pay someone off to fake his identity? "I am here to visit my sister. I will be staying with her and using the money for food and bus fare. In a week, I will return home." or even "I wanted to see if busking in your country would garner the same results as your young Americans do in my country." would have made more sense.Second: Hinting a little at why he calls himself The King would have been nice. It was a great line and wish it had been explored more.Third: How did he not get arrested when he beat up Frankie? The sirens were close. The drugs were mostly used up. I'm sure since it was outside no one else would have been an issue even if they were high because of lack of possession.Third p2: How on Earth were the cops who arrested him worth 50 grand? They were so bad at their side job. Cops not on the books are violent against blacks in the States. And why the political connection in the story at all? The governor didn't seem to have anything to do with the recording and the dentist was rich enough.Fourth: If you suspect your business partner in crime is stealing from you...WHY ARE YOU NOT INVESTIGATING? Would it not make more sense to have him followed? And have someone do an independent audit? If he's done it before WHY ARE YOU STILL PARTNERS? And what rings other than drugs were they even in? It seemed like there was only one child molesting (+worse) incident and the rest were prostitutes. Were they trying to break into the underage ring? I don't get it.Fifth: What was it about the video and Armand that condemned King's sister to death? Why was she tortured instead of just executed? How was she a threat? To whom was she a threat? They hired professionals for this, why? I felt like sentences were being cut out of a book and pasted together with good inventions. It was not a bad movie by far, but it had a lot missing for me to say I loved it. The potential was there...it just didn't quite make it for me.