A B-grade movie and a bad one at that. The film obviously had a small budget and it showed.

The film lacked atmosphere. There was no ambiance of background sounds, noise etc. The scenes outdoors where far too quiet. Plus where is the public? There were no people seen in the background. Making the scenes look obvious they were filed in a studio (rather than on location).

And what's worse than the acting was the lack of basic FX. Wait, I change that, the acting was worse.

Don't waste one and half hours of your time watching this. That time is better spent watching the grass grow.

Did not want to dislike 'Checkmate'. It was not a bad, if not new, premise and Danny Glover and Vinnie Jones have given dependable performances in the past. It had potential to work, and would have done with effort being obvious and like those in front of and behind the camera had their hearts in it.

Neither of which can be seen with 'Checkmate', something that is really quite unforgivable. Have seen worse films, recently and ever, but that doesn't stop 'Checkmate' from being a very poor film with no redeeming traits and a lot of things done absolutely terribly. There is not much to add to what has been said very well already and the review is at the risk of repeating what has been said. Just for the record, 'Checkmate' was watched with an open mind and not without the intent or want to dislike, let alone hate, the film, quite the contrary.

'Checkmate's' best performance comes from Sean Astin who actually does try, but it is a case of trying too hard that it grates somewhat.

This cannot be said for Glover, who is very wooden (like he was in 'Toxin') and like he didn't want to be there, this is one uncomfortable and half-hearted effort from him. Even Jones phones in and seems well past his sell by date. In all fairness the characters are clichéd and are never engaging or easy to get behind, didn't care or endear to any of them. The chemistry is static, likewise with the barely existent direction. The script is from start to finish is a cringe, weep and toe curl-fest.

Furthermore, the story has no tension or suspense whatsoever, is very lifelessly paced and executes a not particularly new if intriguing idea with no imagination or originality. Basically non-stop indifferent dullness and predictability that takes itself far too seriously to be fun. 'Checkmate' has a very dreary, one-note and less than slick visual style with well below average visuals and no attempt at authenticity. The sound is monotonous and over obvious.

In conclusion, awful with a noticeable lack of effort. 1/10 Bethany Cox

The film opens with a bank robbery gone bad and two guys playing chess. It then goes back to "one day earlier." We now get to meet the characters, unfortunately they seemed stiff and unrealistic. Sean Astin plays a priest who is also a paid hitman for God and cites biblical verse, but alas, after seeing Samuel L. Jackson do it, nobody does it better. During the bank robbery, where we now are introduced to a few of the characters, there is a chess game going on between Elohim (Danny Glover) and Lu (Vinnie Jones) for dominion over everything for all time. As the game goes back and forth, so does the robbery, sort of, but it wasn't overly apparent.

If you are going to make an Ingmar Bergman film, on a modern JOB, do it right. The plot and dialogue wasn't that good. Sean Astin reciting biblical verse while aiming a gun wasn't convincing with a dry delivery. (I blame the director for that. I respect Sean too much.) The chess match going back and forth with each man smiling with every move grew old. Lu had trouble with the Queen's pawn power opening and knew better to even wager at that point. I did like the bar/men's room scene and would have liked to have seen more scenes like that, but unfortunately they had dry characters they needed to introduce. And you would think the lord God himself would come up with a more clever name for a girl with a Katana (Katrina Law) other than Katana. Great concept. Bad execution.

Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.