Goat

I am a football fiend. I am a movie fiend. I don't normally go for sports movies since they all seem to use the same underdog template. But a football horror movie? Sign me up day one.

Unfortunately I had a pretty bad time with this movie. I could tell something was off early on. It has inconsistent tones and weird editing. Some of the music is beastly but some feels out of place. And it gets loud seemingly at random, even over dialogue, making it hard to hear it.

There are so many ideas and themes crammed into this movie. Most of them are barely touched upon. Crazy fans, annoying news media and concussions are all included but as unnecessary afterthoughts. It's all over the place.

I found a bunch of parts weird and dumb. And while I like Marlon, I think he was completely miscast in this role. All I kept imagining is how much more intimidating and creepy the character would be if he was played by Mahershala Ali.

(1 viewing, opening Thursday UltraScreen 9/18/2025)

4.5/10 Man, I was so hyped for this movie, and it sucks to say it just didn't deliver.

The acting was great-Marlon Wayans especially killed it-but the script and pacing really dragged it down. The movie honestly needed to be longer in order to have more time to explain things, because so much felt half-baked. From the injections to everything Cam goes through, it all just came off kind of hollow. Even the way the story kicked off didn't feel right. The movie isn't clear on itself, and makes the whole thing feel disjointed.

Also thought to mention, not sure if it was just my theater or the movie itself, but the sound mixing was rough. Everything was super loud and clear except the dialogue.

By the end, it felt like Tipping had a bunch of cool ideas but was unsure of what direction to go. Which in turn caused execution to suffer.

The actors were great, no complaints there. But this should've been a guaranteed success about a movie with a horror/occult twist of telling the dark side of fame, sports, parental expectations, and how many suffer and those above them profit; but instead just really fell short from its potential.

I didn't plan to go see this one, but I got so bored on a Thursday at work. I decided to sneak out and go see it. I figured that I would just walk out if the movie weren't good; I have Regal Unlimited ... In the end, the movie is flawed yet watchable. It's not a good movie; but I was able to make it to the end. It's not as bad as critics say

So I'll start with the good: I like the lead actor Tyriq Withers (he kinda seems like a blend of Paul Walker and Channing Tatum), and Marlon Wayons is credible as the aging quarterback. Marlon Wayons may be 52-53, but he really got in shape here. He looks fantastic physically. The movie has some beautifully-filmed scenes, kinda reminscient of the 2000 movie "The Cell." The X-ray scenes are cool.

The movie also has a good set-up and premise. From the opening scene to Tyriq Withers' arrival at Marlon Wayans' camp, the movie sets up an ominious atmosphere. The scene where a rabid fan shouts "We Don't Want You!" at Tyrik Withers is well-done. The movie really could have been an A+, Longlegs-type of horror with the right execution

Ultimately, too many issues remain. The big one is that I'm just unclear about what the movie is trying to say. The movie has some grandiose, elevated scenes that hint at a message (e.g. There's some religious imagery connecting Marlon Wayan's character to Christ). But I can't really tell what's the message? Is there something about sports? About violence? About masculinity? About race?

The movie's weird scenes are visually aesthetic, but they often seem more random and meaningless than powerful or insightful. My reaction was more in the sense of, "Hey, that looked cool. But what was the point?"

The movie film teases too much the possibility that Tyriq Withers is hallucinating everything because of his head injury. They introduce his brother, mother, and girlfriend early. They all get forgotten to the point where the film could have scrapped all of them without affecting anything

The behavior of Tyriq Withers's character is sometimes eye-rolling. He takes too long to realize that there's something nefarious going on . There's a part where he witnesses an individual brutally take a football to the face. Yet not long afterwards, Tyriq Withers goes on like normal, having buddy-buddy moments with Marlon Wayans. An imbecile would have sensed that something was off with the place

And finally - the conclusion may have some beautiful imagery, but it doesn't work from a storyline perspective. What's supposed to happen to him now? And what Tyriq Withers does at the end seems disconsonant with his character's actions throughout the movie. If the rest of the movie was supposed to build up to this transformation in his character where he's able to do what he does, then the movie failed to convey it

5.5/10.

DO NOT GO INTO THIS THINKING IT IS A JORDAN PEELE MOVIE!!!! The film looked absolutely stunning. The sound was on the same level and the acting was amazing from the entire cast. This movie had so much going for it that the plot kind of disappointed me. It had so many good ideas and yet it did not dig deep enough into any of them to make them stick. I made the mistake of going into this film thinking it was a classic jordan Peele movie. This is not that. Why it has a similar look and pace of many jordan peele movies it just was not on the same level thematically. It tried to run everyway at once and left every path slightly treaded on, but not fully followed.

'HIM' tries to immerse us in a dark world where winning, being the best, and doing whatever it takes to get there matter most. It shows the hardships, demands, and questionable choices faced by those striving to be the greatest of all time. However, due to its overuse of symbolism, metaphors, and some odd decisions with camera cuts and style, it leaves us feeling indifferent about what happens to any character or the story itself.

The highest praise that we can give this movie is for Marlon Wayans, who delivers a career-best performance. Still, that gets lost in a film that fails to make us care about anything happening on screen, leaving us puzzled rather than moved. There's a good movie in here somewhere, but they fumbled the chance of making it get there.

'HIM' is a rough film, filled with unrelatable characters, a chaotic artistic style, and a story that ultimately doesn't evoke emotion or connection. Marlon Wayans is excellent, but everything else about this film feels forced, pretentious, and heavy-handed.

Brad: 4.5 Josh: 5

Full Review: wbtp.link/youtube.