Pawn Sacrifice

Rated PG-13 / 1 hr 54 min / Biography - Drama

What is it about?

Bobby Fischer is a chess prodigy, but his true passion is staring a ceiling fans. He can't stand his mother having sex all the time, so he ships her off to California. Don't worry, he put air holes in the box then covered them with duct tape. He beats some of the best chess players in the world to become the youngest Grand Master of Chess ever. However his most amazing accomplishment is solving the Rubix Cube. He does it by peeling off the stickers and replacing them with Mentos. He then decides that he wants to be the World Champion of Chess, but the Russians don't play fair. To get back at them he locks himself in his hotel room and disassembles the phone. Bobby Fischer just wants to eat oranges in his hotel and wear a tin foil hat. Can't have those pesky aliens or Russians downloading his thoughts. Eventually there is a showdown between Fisher and Spassky (the current world champion of origami). They make one paper crane to rule them all.

You will like it if...

You like biographical films based Bobby Fischer or chess. Tobey Maguire gives one of the best performances I've seen from him. Yes even better than creepy Peter Parker in Spiderman 3. Don't make me jazz battle dance you! He fully captures the descent from brilliance into madness that Fischer goes through. Fischer is an enigmatic and interesting character that many of current generation may not have been exposed to. Liev Schreiber plays Spassky who is shown as the Russian antithesis of Fischer. The film tries to paint him as a parallel to Fischer while still being the evil Russian chess oppressor WRA. Fortunately Liev isn't asked to do too much and does an adequate job of it. For a movie about chess the film doesn't delve deep enough into it to make it snooze worthy. Pawn Sacrifice is more of a study of how the game can stress the brain of people who play it at the highest levels. Interesting throughout while managing not to bore you to death with the chess aspect, Pawn Sacrifice is a well made biography of Bobby Fischer. If you are at all interested by the preview then I would recommend this movie when it hits Redbox. It's not one that you should be rushing to the theaters for.

Next Week

The Walk, The Martian, or Attack on Titan Part 1. Vote in the comments or Godzilla will pick the movie! As always the movie selection depends on what is showing here in theaters.

Upcoming to DVD on Tuesday 9/29

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