One of the reasons I was interested in this film is due to its star, Mason Gooding, an up-and-coming, African American actor who some might recognize from horror films, such as Scream (2022) and Heart Eyes (2025). He's appeared in several, smaller projects in the past, few years. Some have come and gone. This one is more notable because of a coincidental connection, or maybe not so coincidental one. Mason Gooding is the son of Cuba Gooding Jr., the Oscar-winning actor. Three years before his award-worthy performance, Cuba made a thriller called Judgment Night (1993), which was about four male friends on a road trip who get lost, witness a murder and then go on the run from the killer with the whole thing taking place all in matter of a few hours, as the male friends try to survive. From watching the trailer for this film, written and directed by John Burr, it feels as if it's trying to be a new take on that concept.
Judgment Night, directed by Stephen Hopkins (Race and Predator 2), was about machismo and masculinity, which allowed for a lot of thrills, including shootouts and fisticuffs. It allowed for more stunts like chases and even an explosion. Burr's film isn't really about machismo, at least not in the same way. Hopkins' film was about how men express themselves through aggression and violence rather than talking or negotiation. It was about what kind of man is the hero, the one that fights or the one who uses other methods. In various ways, this film is about Black identity and racism, although it could be generalized as being about bigotry and discrimination when it comes to certain marginalized groups. It could also be even more generalized as being about social class.
Keith Powers (Emperor of Ocean Park and The New Edition Story) co-stars as Tyon, a friend of Mason Gooding's Derek. Tyon is a football player. He's hoping to get a scholarship that will give him a full ride to college. Other than that, the only thing we get is that he wants to party with his two friends and hopefully have sex with a girl tonight. Not much more is learned about his character. I was hoping to get more insight into his friendship with Derek. It seems as if Derek grew up in Highland Park, which is an area in Dallas, Texas, that is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the state. It's considered equivalent to Beverly Hills. Yet, it doesn't seem like Tyon lives there. He doesn't come from a wealthy family like Derek does.
If that's the case, it's not clear how the two of them are friends. Tyon indicates that he's known Derek since high school, if not before then. If they grew up in different neighborhoods, it's unlikely they would go to the same school. Maybe they did and maybe they bonded over football. It's not a well defined friendship. To be fair, the origins of the friendships in Judgment Night were not well established. Yet, we saw them interacting and trying to survive the night together. This film doesn't establish or develop those dynamics because Burr makes the decision to split up the characters. Mason Gooding's Derek spends a significant chunk of the film by himself, so we lose any interactions that he could have had with Tyon and Tyon's other friend.
Algee Smith (Euphoria and The New Edition Story) also co-stars as Kevin, the other friend of Tyon. He works at a car dealership. He's driving a brand new sports vehicle. It's revealed that he doesn't own it. He's simply borrowing it from the dealership and plans to return it in the morning. Kevin doing this mirrors something that the character played by Jeremy Piven does in Judgment Night. As the night progresses, Kevin's personality is revealed to be more cowardly or more selfish, which again mirrors Piven's character in Judgment Night. Kevin is given a bit of a redemptive arc, but giving him more interactions with Derek to develop their relationship would've been more appreciated and helped to flesh out that arc.
As much as I don't want to admit it, if the characters of Tyon and Kevin were removed from this narrative, not much would be lost. Other than getting Derek to the gated community where they accidentally witness the murder, neither Tyon and Kevin contribute much of anything. We get a scene where someone assumes Kevin must be a rapper or good at doing rap music, which is meant to underline the bigotry and prejudice throughout the gated community, as well as Black stereotypes. Yet, that scene ends up being completely inconsequential to the narrative.
The film begins with Derek being invited to a party. He's going with Tyon and Kevin. Kevin says he doesn't understand why Derek and Tyon are even friends because Derek comes from a rich background and Derek is more likely to give the police the benefit of the doubt, whereas in a post Black Lives Matter world, Kevin is not. Kevin calls Derek "bougie," meaning he's privileged and that his opinions are predicated on him being in a protected bubble. In that regard, separating Derek and having his bubble be burst makes sense. Yet, it's a missed opportunity because Kevin being with him could have allowed for Kevin to reinforce that bubble being burst. Also, Judgment Night worked mainly for its setting. Hopkins' film was all about urban decay, as well as the desperation and isolation of a severely impoverished, inner city area. It made it easier to stage fevered chases and shootouts. The setting here is a gated community. Whereas the villain in Judgment Night had the benefit of existing in a lawless area, the villain here has to try to use the law and law enforcement as his own weapons.
James Van Der Beek (Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 and Dawson's Creek) rounds out the main cast as Jacob Andrews, a pastor at a church within the gated community. He's married to a politician who's running for some big office. Meanwhile, he's having an affair. He wants to build a megachurch and he fears that if his affair is exposed, it'll ruin that. He kills his mistress but when he realizes Derek and his friends have witnessed it, Jacob chases them down trying to kill them. Jacob could argue that they were trespassing, but once they escape, him shooting them down in the streets feels like it would be less plausible or explainable, so his plan is to frame them, but even that would be shaky.
This film tries to buttress that shakiness with this concept of how religion can be used as a way to manipulate people to get them to do what you want. Jacob quotes Bible verses, but having some struggle or push-back in that dynamic would have been great. Brad Leland (Veep and Friday Night Lights) plays a football coach and a Christian who practically is that person pushing back, but it never felt enough.
Rated R for violence, language, some sexual references and brief drug use.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 38 mins.
Available on VOD.
