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Sinners takes back to 1932 – in the days when cotton fields were still picked by hand – specifically October 16th, when an injured Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) walks into a church, clutching a broken guitar.
Yes, it’s one of those films that plops the effect in your face, before going back in time to show how the cause played out.
Smoke and Stack are twin brothers – and both played by Michael B Jordan – have returned home after working for Al Capone, buy a sawmill to turn into a juke joint, where they can have a hoedown every night. Then again, there’s not much else to do in the area, of an evening; and hire Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo – Point Break 2015) to play for them, for a mere $40, along with all the beer he can drink.
The most staggering thing about Sinners is the amount of groupthink online about how wonderful the film apparently is, but in what comes across as Roots: The Movie, at 137 minutes in total, it takes forever to get going, has a good music scene in the middle – with Sammie strumming away aplenty, then has a decent fight scene as the third act begins, but along with a ton of mumbled dialogue most of the way through, this really is one of the most overhyped movies of the year.
Plus, Mr Jordan makes no effort to provide any distinction between how Smoke and Stack behave, so you never know which one is which for the majority of the running time.
And one aspect about the plot which I’ll put behind a spoiler section, which wasn’t originally noted in the original trailer.
I saw Sinners at Vue Printworks Manchester, due to the 1.43:1 IMAX format, which can provide incredible visuals, particularly when it comes to the works of Christopher Nolan.
However, beyond the aforementioned music and fight scenes – the latter of which shows the picture gradually opening up to that ratio, there was only a total of 28 mins in 1.43:1 – mostly in establishing shots the rest of the time.
I also didn’t get why this was shot in the extreme aspect ratio of 2.76:1 the rest of the time, as no modern screen goes that wide, so it results in black bars for everyone, and even more so when Trafford Centre put it on screen 14 (one of the 1.85:1 screens!). But then I also felt Ryan Coogler’s Creed and Creed III were turgid, and the same for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. (I still haven’t seen the first, but I wasn’t big on it, nor going to the cinema often at the time).
Other recent overly-wide movies including John David Washington’s The Creator (also 2.76:1), and Disney’s Wish (2.55:1), both of which were also initially shown on 1.85:1 screens at my local Odeon. But then, they prioritise screens based on the number of seats in the room, rather than shape of the display.
All that said, there is a video where the director discusses aspect ratios, which I’ll link below.
NOTE: There is also both a mid- and a post-credits scene. See the video below.
Sinners is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 137 minutes
Release date: April 18th 2025
Studio: Warner Bros
Aspect Ratio: 2.76:1; 1.43:1 (IMAX 70MM & GT Dual Laser: some scenes), 1.90:1 (Digital IMAX: some scenes) (65 mm, Kodak Vision3 500T 5219, IMAX, Anamorphic Ultra Panavision 70)
Cinema: Vue Printworks Manchester
Rating: 2/10
Director: Ryan Coogler
Producers: Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler
Screenplay: Ryan Coogler
Music: Ludwig Göransson
Cast:
Smoke / Stack: Michael B Jordan
Sammie Moore: Miles Caton
Mary: Hailee Steinfeld
Ruthie: Andrene Ward-Hammond
Remmick: Jack O’Connell
Delta Slim: Delroy Lindo
Beatrice: Tenaj Jackson
Grace Chow: Li Jun Li
Lisa Chow: Helena Hu
Bo Chow: Yao
Terry: Sam Malone
Cornbread: Omar Benson Miller
Hogwood: David Maldonado
Jedidiah: Saul Williams
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.