Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Is Better Than Him & The Senior

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Him isn't just bad. It's one of the bottom 10 movies I've seen this year…and I've seen 107 movies in the theaters in 2025. It wasn't even the best football movie to come out this weekend. The Senior is better. There aren't many great football movies compared to other sports like boxing and baseball so you'd hope one of these two could join movies like Friday Night Lights, Any Given Sunday and The Longest Yard. I know some people love Rudy and Remember The Titans but they are not in the camp of top-tier sports movies for me.

Here are mini-reviews of Him, The Senior and Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale:

Few movies are about less than than Him. The premise of the story is “Cults = bad!!!!11!!!” but that might be giving the movie too much credit for having a story at all.

Shame on the advertising team behind this to falsely put Jordan Peele’s name all over the promotion of this. He didn’t write or direct Him, he was just a producer. It’s also miles below the quality of a Peele film. Instead, it attempts to be surrealism for dummies.

It does manage to waste Marlon Wayans, who is a very good actor when in the right project. He does the best he can but even Robert De Niro in his prime is saving this piece of shit.

The director seems so hellbent on the visuals that he doesn’t care about anything else, including logic or plausibility. Maybe stick to making commercials from now on.

Him: D-

Downton Abbey is the epitome of “perfectly fine”. This is a movie with ridiculously low stakes. Most of the movie deals with not being to go to high society parties and maybe having to sell their second home.

But there is a sweetness with the show that carries through to the movie. They wisely have Michelle Dockery carry most of the movie. She’s the most talented of the primary cast. Paul Giamatti is here as well but he’s playing an idiot so it seems like a waste to me. Maybe he’s a fan of the show and wanted to be involved?

If you enjoy Downton, you’ll enjoy this. The show is all here. It’s shot beautifully and has long, extended shots of people smiling at each other. 

There is nothing wrong with delivering on exactly what you are expecting. But, there’s nothing great about that either. It’s perfectly fine.

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale: B-

The Senior is a sweet movie that has all the best intentions. There is something to be said for that. It’s also made in a very basic way that makes this all feel like a made for TV movie.

It tells the true story of 59 year old Mike Flynt (played by Michael Chiklis) who goes back to college to join the football team. He makes the team and it’s a very inspiring story.  Chiklis is, by far, the best part of the movie. He gives a nice, quiet performance that feels real. I was also very impressed with how he is out there doing all of these drills. His physicality makes this movie work.

It’s an Angel Studios so it looks and feels cheap. It also has guardrails up to make this acceptable for a church going crowd. All of this makes it feel like it’s something you’d see on network TV in the 1990’s. I can’t recommend anyone to buy a ticket for this movie but if it’s on streaming and you want a nice story, you could do a lot worse.

The Senior: C+

2025 

1)Sinners 

2)Weapons 

3)Caught Stealing 

4)The Long Walk 

5)Presence 

6)The Life Of Chuck 

7)Black Bag 

8)The Ballad Of Wallis Island 

9)Warfare 

10)Friendship 

11)Superman 

12)Mission Impossible 8 

13)28 Years Later 

14)Novocaine 

15)Fantastic Four 

16)The Naked Gun 

17)Final Destination 6 

18)The Amateur 

19)Drop 

20)Dangerous Animals 

21)Together 

22)Death Of A Unicorn 

23)The Accountant 2 

24)The Damned 

25)One Of Them Days 

26)Materialists 

27)Lilo & Stitch 

28)Paddington 3 

29)Thunderbolts 

30)F1 

31)Clown In A Cornfield 

32)Bring Her Back 

33)Hell Of A Summer 

34)Karate Kid 6 

35)DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALE

36)Fight Or Flight 

37)Valiant One 

38)Sketch 

39)The Roses 

40)How To Train Your Dragon 

41)Elio 

42)Rule Breakers 

43)Heart Eyes 

44)The Conjuring 4 

45)Mickey17 

46)The Surfer 

47)Relay 

48)Last Breath 

49)Flight Risk 

50)Minecraft

51)Den Of Thieves 2 

52)Dogman 

53)Companion 

54)Eddington 

55)Jurassic World Rebirth 

56)THE SENIOR 

57)KPop Demon Hunters 

58)The Toxic Avenger 

59)Ballerina 

60)A Working Man 

61)The Last Rodeo 

62)Shadow Force 

63)The Alto Knights 

64)Honey Don’t 

65)The Bad Guys 2 

66)The Penguin Lessons 

67)The Chosen Part 2 

68)Looney Tunes

69)Opus

70)M3GAN 2 

71)Becoming Led Zeppelin 

72)Captain America: BNW 

73)I Know What You Did Last Summer

74)Until Dawn 

75)Ne Zha 2

76)The Chosen Part 1 

77)Riff Raff 

78)The Home 

79)Freakier Friday 

80)Inheritance 

81)Nobody 2 

82)The Chosen Part 3 

83)The Wedding Banquet 

84)Smurfs 

85)The Legend Of Ochi 

86)Night Of The Zoopocalypse 

87)The Phoenician Scheme 

88)Sneaks 

89)Ash 

90)Jujutsu Kaisen 

91)The King Of Kings 

92)The Friend 

93)Dan Da Dan 2 

94)Light Of The World 

95)Snow White 

96)The Unbreakable Boy 

97)Brave The Dark 

98)Wolf Man 

99)Hurry Up Tomorrow 

100)The Monkey 

101)Love Hurts 

102)HIM

103)The Last Supper 

104)Woman In The Yard 

105)Bride Hard 

106)Juliet & Romeo 

107)In The Lost Lands