While we had big plans for Beyond Festival Chicago, we were only able to catch a few movies. Let me tell you that what we saw was amazing, and we can not wait for you to see these movies.
What we saw
The two movies we got to see at the Music Box were The Furious and One Spoon of Chocolate. While we had intended to see more movies, work and family commitments took priority that weekend.
The Furious
Seeing The Furious at the Music Box was an incredible experience. The entire audience cheered, gasped, and clapped during certain moments of the film. I have not experienced something like that in the theaters in a long time.
The movie was intense, and the action was insane. Not since The Raid: Redemption have I seen action like this in a movie. I could swear that people got hurt making this movie because the fight scenes felt so real. I left the theater feeling like I just witnessed the next big thing. I can not wait for people to go see this when it comes out. I will have a full review before The Furious releases.
When his daughter Rainy is abducted, humble tradesman Wang Wei is thrust into a deadly underworld of corruption and violence. His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist haunted by his own past. Together, they fight their way through an international criminal network in a desperate bid to save Rainy and uncover the truth.
One Spoon of Chocolate
From the beginning, you can see the Tarantino influences in One Spoon of Chocolate. During the Q&A, the RZA mentioned he showed cuts of the movie to Quentin Tarantino and would get feedback.
One Spoon of Chocolate is a throwback to the grindhousey movies from the 70s. The movie will make people uncomfortable due to the issues the protagonist, Unique, faces. The movie itself was pretty good, but it did suffer from cheesy dialogue here and there. The action in the movie was very good, and the final fifteen minutes are intense!
One of the highlights of this screening was meeting RZA. I had him sign an old Gravediggaz photo I had and took a picture with him. I was hoping we would be able to interview him about the movie, but maybe we can when it releases on digital and Blu-ray.
Fresh out of prison, Army veteran Unique (Shameik Moore) moves to a small Ohio town hoping for a fresh start. But when he collides with a racist sheriff and his violent crew, Unique must confront his past and take justice into his own hands in this brutal, brilliant, action-packed revenge thriller from Wu-Tang Clan mastermind RZA.
Overall, while we did not get to watch everything we wanted, we did get to see some good movies. If Beyond Fest comes back to Chicago next year, hopefully I will be able to see more movies.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.