F the Critics, Go See “Him”

Hey there, folks.

It is Tuesday, September the twenty third, and we just came from a theater seeing what is described as maybe the worst reviewed movie of the year.

Just how badly is it reviewed?

Ropes Well Him has gotten one half star out of four from a major Roger Ebert dot com New York Times did not like it in Indie Wire.

Whooh, they panned it as well.

When you say they panned it, what do you mean?

How's this for a line in a movie review? Putrid and hollow? Justin Tipping's brain dead football horror film, which somehow managed to secure the backing of producer Jordan Peel, is incomprehensibly bad.

And we would like to tell you we fucking loved it. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Robes. We were scratching our haggs. We were a little confused. Some of the reviews, they can be bad. Some of the reviews we heard for this one seemed.

Mean, Yes, hi, how about this a rock brained football horror movie that's as subtle as being sacked by a three hundred pound defensive lineman and somehow only half as much fun.

Oh my goodness, that seems mean. That doesn't seem to be a critique of the lighting, of the music, of the acting, of the writing. That seems like they were taking shots at this movie that has a rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Nine percent once in nine.

I think it's on the rise if it's twenty nine, because I think it was lower. At one point, we have been seeing previews robes. We go to horror movies. The only thing we see at theater is pretty much a horror movies, so we see previews for upcoming horror movies. We've been seeing about this one for a while. It was intriguing. We were curious, but it wasn't one we plan to run out and see at theaters until we're like, how was everybody hating on this movie so much?

Yeah, until the bad reviews, and then we knew we had to see it, And the truth is it's not.

Look.

I appreciated how different it was.

For me. It was the best way I could describe it was a football story meets midsummer That's what it felt like to me. So, yes, it was bizarre and you didn't know if what you were watching were hallucinations or some sort of demonic presence, or if it was maybe a fever dream from a concussion. You know, you weren't really sure, but that was intriguing and certainly entertaining.

I laughed. I was shocked.

There weren't the typical jump scares. It wasn't terrifying or scary.

Necessary horror thriller, kind of a cur correct.

And there was some certainly some body horror in there, but you suffered through. You know, I hate that's not your favorite genre.

I hate tho was the movie's substance.

I'm and there were some folks who made comparisons to it, but saying it wasn't anywhere near as good. But there was you know, when you've got the audio of the sound effects that go along with just even a simple injection can be disgusting. So they the sound effects were definitely a lot like a horror genre, I mean horror, a body horror genre.

Okay, And it's hard for us to say now because we how could you go back? But there is no way that even if we had not heard any of the reviews, which would naturally set low expectations, dearest, if we had seen this movie without seeing a single review, we would have enjoyed, Yes, this movie. We wouldn't have walked out complaining. We walked out. The three of us met you and Sabine. We were arguing, like what was that? What did that mean? We immediately started talking about it.

That makes art because it starts you question, wait, what did I just see?

And what do you think that meant? And didn't you like this? And that was weird? But what do you think that was? That? I think is all something I appreciate when I walk out of a movie, that you're having a shared experience. You watched it individually, but now you want to talk about it and discuss it and figure out what actually happened. It was never boring, and a lot of people, a lot of people, a lot of critics, and a lot of folks just who every

I found I saw why was everybody trying to be cute in their writing. They were trying to, in some way take advantage of a football moving a football theme to make all these clever little cracks and be snarky. You can do your thing and you can be a critic. That is fine, but there was a meanness to a lot of this stuff.

Yes, the critics consensus, so they kind of just sum up all of the different critiques.

On Rotten Tomatoes said this fumbling the ball well before the red zone.

Tim has style to spare, but botches it's promising, conceit with rookie execution, Christ cold with puns.

Look filled with puns. Maybe people took took advantage look and we have to give The reason I think we're doing this is because Marlon Wayans put out a statement. He put out something on Instagram acknowledging how bad the reviews were. His statement I thought was classy. I think you gave me a heads up about that he had put something out, so I thought he was taking him on in some way. I thought he was respectful and classy in the way he addressed it.

I think so too. He said he respects the critics. He said their job is to critique. He respects their work. He said it.

Shapes our industry, but an opinion does not always mean it's everyone's opinion. Some movies are ahead of the curve. And then he went on to say innovation is not always embraced, and art is to be interpreted and it's subjective. He says, I've had a career of making classic movies that weren't critically received, and those movies went on to be classics. So don't take anyone's opinion, just go see for yourself. Love to all him in theaters, and that is what made us want to go see the movie.

His statement was, I was leaning towards like, how can a movie be reviewed so poorly? And it's not just that people say it's not good or drags, or it's poor rioting, or can't believe how it was shot or the acting performance. So this was just everybody took a shot. It seemed like people were dying to take a shot. Look, the director is one thing. What is his name again? Robes the direct tipping justin tipping.

Justin tipping, okay, But a lot of.

What's been used to promote the movie is the name of Jordan Peele?

Correct?

Jordan Peele is the seen as a hit maker, if you will, in this genre in particular, so his name is attached to it. I don't know what the expectation given that Jordan Peele's name was attached. I was like, oh, okay, this kind of this idea from some of his previous movies. I'm like, Okay, I don't exactly know what I'm saying, but I'm going on some kind of a trip.

I feel like he's right now, kind of the Black and Night Shyamalan. He's had some really big hits. He's got a very creative and people will go to see a movie with his name on it. But there are a lot of very high expectations associated with a name

And I ask, is it highbrow expectations?

Perhaps, like you have.

To have some kind of an elevated horror experience. Correct, okay, and we are. I will put our credentials up. We are horror movie aficionado's. We love horror movies and some of them are outstanding and excellent that are not award winning, but our wonderful experiences to have. This was a this we aren't from start to finish. I think I told you a third or a half in the movie in I still didn't know exactly what was happening.

And I appreciated that.

Yes, And I think a lot of people didn't. They somehow they wanted They thought it was too subtle, too obscure, too confusing. You know, I actually wanted to read this review by Robert Daniels in rogeriber dot com, but just from where he started, and I did read one of his lines towards the end of it, But he said, I can't believe I left the house to see him. I can't believe I took the train for over an hour from the North side of Chicago to downtown to

Yes, I think, look, we are not movie critics, and we're trying to end us. What Marlon did, he respected, this is what you do. You critique. Now, if you have a criticism, why does it have to be Why did you have me waste my time on the couch? Again, I get maybe they're trying to be snarky, maybe trying to be funny. Is that what it is? But it comes across as mean and unnecessary, like this is someone's art, this is someone you know how hard it is to get a movie on the big screen. Of course we do,

Weeknd thirteen point five to thirteen.

Point five, a respectable number came in second at the box office, only cost twenty seven million to make, so not the biggest scare in the world. Looks like they could make their money back back and do Okay, now, this is one do you think robes because of the attention it's gotten so much negative attention in the way he has addressed it, This could possibly do them some good. They could possibly pick up some new audience because of how bad thing has been reviewed.

It can peque interest to see just how bad they Someone else might think it is based on some of these reviews, but I also think they're being compared to. Look, a lot of folks have been writing that horror movies, and we've talked about this, have been on a massive hot street. They have done just gangbusters at the box office, and we've been excited because we feel like finally people are catching on to the genre that we love most.

They've been huge, Sinners, Weapons, Final Destination, Conjuring big somewhere.

They have basically been booying up a you know, a lagging box office. And we've got more coming too, because there's a whole bunch of new movies coming out. People have recognized that horror movies are now.

Kind of you like.

It used to just be a niche where only a certain type of person or a moviegoer would want to see it, and now it seems like it's caught on and so yes, people are looking into making big franchise horror movies.

And they've been doing them well.

Well, they heightened expectations. Now, yes, right, I thought this one was in line. The way it looked, the way it was shot, the way I mean it was a beautiful movie at the production value at all that was in line.

It was remarkable.

So I don't know if maybe perhaps they're being compared to or this movie is being compared to the ones that came before it, and they set up these certain expectations, not just Jordan Peel's former movies, but these other movies we just mentioned, also coming down the Pike, One Battle after Another, Strangers Chapter two, Black Phone two. We just saw the trailer for that in this theater. So this

But are we lay people compared to professional critics who I actually don't know what their training is. But are we lay people and they see something or excuse me, are they just looking through a different lens than we are. We are simply fans. We are not trying to critique it as we're watching. Our critique is our experience in the theater, and our experience was a good one.

It was a good one.

And I think for me, my critique or the way I view it is was I entertained.

Was the acting good? Was the script good?

Was it able to make me feel things, whether it be laughter, fear, horror, shocked, all.

And it did all of those things and confusion.

Even sometimes because I like to be I was on the edge of my seat, not because I was scared, but because I was intensely watching to see what was coming next and how this was all going to be explained.

And that's a thriller.

Those mist thriller.

It was a thriller with a body horror and there was gore, So I mean it really was a thriller horror, but probably more thriller than horror because you're trying to figure out what is happening, what's going on.

There is a scene when things finally turn, when he's in a practice and there is a there are consequences for him missing a pass right, and the consequences are not on him, It's on somebody else that intensity. I was like, Oh, where's this movie going?

Oh?

You saw that happened.

I had my hand over my eyes. I did not want to look.

I was definitely not wanting to see some of what was happening to this poor fella who happily get to leave volunteer whatever reason. I have no idea to be tortured, but it was. I just thought it was never boring. It was never so. So that's why I'm confused by what a lot of these critics are saying. And even so, they have some regular joes, you know, who write in and I always like those actually more than the critics, because I feel like they're kind of every man like

People have their opinions, and again.

They okay, he said this was not worthy of my time. One of the worst movies I have seen this year.

Let's not do that.

I actually am fascinated people in such a time.

That's person that's mean, that's emotional, almost not worth And again, maybe I haven't read enough movie reviews and this is how they talk sometimes and it's time you have to be to get attention. He had to be done. I don't know, or maybe that's how he genuinely feels. It just seems hard.

How about this one?

This one I don't even get cheap visuals cheap okay, disagree? A wandering plot I didn't think it was wandering, and a disappointing amount of gore. Despite a promising premise with a likable protagonist, the execution was fumbled but on bomp. Several main plot points are carried by shaky cams and

A disappointing amount.

Meaning too much gore.

I think, oh, okay, so I took that weight. There wasn't enough. You're saying that they think it too much.

Well, you know what, maybe the movie seemed almost afraid of leaning into the gore.

Oh so they're saying is not gory enough?

Yes, and they wanted more scares, more gore.

But see, they sound like they went into it with too many expectations.

I think everyone did. I think that's part of the problem. But she visuals, I don't get that at all. I thought it was absolutely well shot and compelling in terms of the visuals.

And the compound they were at was more.

Music was great, The acting was great.

You know, it's it's interesting, the original really awful. Preview by Robert Daniels at Robert Roger Ebert dot com when he said that Julia Fox was Wooden.

I actually thought she was a steam seal, a scene steeler in a lot of moments because she was playing this over the top person.

Yes, like this influencer who was married to you know, the go to the big quarterback. And she was this, you know, full lipped woman who played her role perfectly.

You and I after her first scene, we turned to each other. Both leaned over immediately, just naturally to each other, like, oh my gosh, she's awesome, right we love. I loved the first appearance she made, like, oh my gosh, she's great. I'm glass he's in there. And to hear somebody hated look to Marlin's point, a critics' opinion doesn't mean it's

We would never be mean, and I was prepared to not like it as well and just say, hey, I think we didn't have to say things so harshly. But yeah, there were some major problems with this film. I didn't I was prepared to be able to say that too. I didn't know what to think. So again, I do think when you go in with low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.

We kept looking at each other waiting for it to get bad.

I was like, this is good and I actually saw you genuinely enjoy it, just from like a guy football kind of a thing.

Oh it was again, I think that was I think you said it before we even got out of the theater football meets Midsummer.

Yes, that's what it felt like to me.

It was a trippy little thing. You have more reviews so well.

Someone else described it as I wait, what do they say? It was Friday Night Lights meets Nosferatu, which I thought was kind of funny too.

I was like, that's another way to put it, and.

I like the kid Tarik Withers. Yes, we looked and we saw we reconnize what is he from? Ware's he from? He was the guy who played the in the recent reimagining of I Know What You Did Last Summer. So he was in another movie.

It was the Ryan Felippe of the New of the New franchise.

It was and he I thought he was solid and unlike his feel, his look at motion at times, his toughen it at times, his vulnerability. He was a kid at times, a man a time. I loved it. I look and you know look full disclosure. We have a special place in our heart for Marlon Wayans. We just do best I've ever seen him in a movie.

I thought he was remarkable, as in you know, people talked about Sinners and the acting performances in that movie. I thought he was on par with that. That's how good he was. And it was such a departure from anything else I've ever seen him in. I thought he was phenomenal. And by the way, in some of these reviews, even though they didn't like the movie, they did point out the acting chops of Marlon White that he was yes, and several other outlets did point out variety some of

We watch a lot.

Of silly horror movies campy, and they're not even intentionally campy. Some of them are just campy and they were trying to be good, and we still enjoy those.

But I would never say that the acting is good.

The whole point is sometimes we like to watch movies with bad acting, but because it's just fun.

But this acting was stellar.

Stellar, love and credit, and we commend Marlon Wayns for what he did for being able to speak about it. This is his art, you know. He put a lot into this role, and he knows what's being said about it and to just say, you know what, I respect you won't do your thing, but it doesn't mean it's everybody's opinion. Go see it, and for whatever reason, maybe that works, sweetheart. I'm not sure if we would have seen this movie had he not put out that Instagram.

Yeh.

So kudos to Marlon Wayans.

We've always loved him and certainly really respect his acting capabilities from this movie. And like he said, art is subjective, and so hey, if it gets you talking, if it gets you feeling something, even if you're annoyed that you saw it, Hey you felt something, you experienced something. But if you haven't seen it and you can handle a little bit of gore and you love a thriller, we highly recommend this film.

You will not be board. That is our recommendation. But folks, we always appreciate. Again, we didn't expect this, but uh, movie review what it's just full and ever what are we gonna be?

Oh, well, definitely thumbs up.

We're gonna thought, well, we should come up with a grading system sometimes we should if.

We if we do enough of these, we we could come up with our own system. But this is definitely a you should go see it.

We would recommend this for sure. Folks, We always appreciate you hanging with us and listening to us. For my dear Amy Robot, I'm t J. Holmes. We'll see y'all soon, and yes, go see him