Brothers by Blood

A wasted effort, and I hate to do this to a film...a lot of time and talent went into this, but it just doesn't work.

A waiting game in which both the audience and the movie lose.

Casual viewers, unwilling to sit through 90 minutes that feel like three hours, won't find much interest in such a somber, slow-burn approach...

It feels rather plodding... failing to turn the boxer's conflicting loyalties into the stuff of crime-flick high drama.

Director Jérémie Guez paints his Philadelphia-set gangster tale with authentic-enough colors, but he fails to find a convincing reason to tell this story, of these Philadelphia gangsters, at this time.

It's hard to say that any other edit would be better, because Brothers by Blood is one single, grey mass to the bone, an unfortunate use of a sterling cast and a book that deserves a more textured retelling.

As uninspired the direction may be, the screenplay fares even worse with an indulgence in shallow characters, stale dialogue and tired tropes of a masculine criminal enterprise with emotional bonds that are incredibly weak.

Brothers by Blood starts off with plenty of promise then devolves into a rather dull film.

Visually drab, tonally flat, and with precious few sympathetic or relatable characters, Brothers by Blood should be elevated by its strong cast but remains steadfastly sluggish.

Less a nuanced examination of small-time underworld behavior in the city of Brotherly Love and more a collection of lame tough-guy behaviors and dialogue...