Cowboys, gunslingers, and revenge stories still captivated critics and audiences in the western genre. This past year, we had the Peter Dinklage-led western The Thicket with an 80% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, and Ari Aster’s upcoming western movie, Eddington, already had a 66% critics score before its July release. As for Samuel L. Jackson and Pierce Brosnan’s new western, The Unholy Trinity, it’s insane the huge dichotomy between what critics and audiences say about it.
The 2025 movie release of The Unholy Trinity follows a mysterious figure (Samuel L. Jackson) and a new sheriff (Pierce Brosnan) who gets caught up in a young man on a quest to murder the man who led to his framed father’s execution. Based on the film’s trailer, we see what’s typical of an 1870s-set backdrop of mountain landscapes, saloons, and gunslinging action on horseback.
Rotten Tomatoes' contested scoring process marks a movie with a “Fresh” or “Rotten” score, as determined by a range of critics’ reviews. While an audience’s score has always been there, the site’s brand new popcornmeter is taking what audiences say more seriously with its “Hot” or “Stale” scale. In the case of The Unholy Trinity on Rotten Tomatoes, the dichotomy between critics and audiences is huge, receiving a “Rotten” 17% from the critics, but a 66% from its verified audience.
Based on 18 critics’ reviews, two reviews felt The Unholy Trinity was more for a straight-to-VOD or a television-made movie compared to a theatrical release. Many felt it didn’t offer anything original to the western genre, with a couple of critics reacting with the term “blasphemy.”
Audiences, however, had a more positive spin on the new western. While many expressed disappointment in many plot points being left unexplored, plenty were impressed with the cast, its action sequences, and found it an entertaining western.
Make an early call yourself after watching the trailer below.
This wouldn’t be the first time that critics and audiences haven’t been in agreement on Rotten Tomatoes. Movies like Jumper, Bullet Train, Waiting…, and more have had differing scales of critics and audience scores. In terms of the latest movies that have come out, fans and critics were not on the same page with A Minecraft Movie, with a 48% critics score and an 85% audience score. While the Lilo and Stitch remake received good reviews all around, critics didn’t like the Disney movie as much as audiences did, which was verified as “Hot” on the popcornmeter with a 93% audience rating, but a 72% critics rating. It proves right there that critics and audiences have very different visions of what makes a good movie worth watching.
The hugely contrasting opinions critics and audiences are having over Samuel L. Jackson and Pierce Brosnan’s new movie are incredible. The Unholy Trinity may have felt unoriginal to critics, but it looks like audiences were still entertained by what they saw. Sometimes, a solid cast and spectacular action sequences are clearly enough to win audiences over and give them a good time in theaters.
If you want to see why audiences are favoring the new western-crime movie, make sure to catch The Unholy Trinity in theaters now.
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