Bad Times at the El Royale could have been just another Tarantino wannabe but skilfully directed by Drew Goddard it subverts most expectations the longer it goes on. With a solid and small cast, the whole story is strongly underpinned. Certainly, filming from different character’s perspectives and swimming fully in the non-linear pool we are not in virgin territory but with the pace generally staying at frenetic Goddard keeps your eyes glued to the screen and caring what is happening.
Truth be told for this jaded old fart watching several story points were lost on me and surprised me at the reveal, although that damn-attractive Dakota Johnson’s storyline quicky unravelled with half an hour of the running time. As I say I have watched and read a lot of fiction and I am incredibly old.
The vivid colours of the cinematography help distract from what is basically a stage-based story and give the film a comic-book fantasy edge even though we are strictly in a nasty adult world here. Here is where I feel the big difference is between this being a Drew Goddard film and a Tarantino film. I have always got the impression from Tarantino that he somehow really enjoys the dark violence and death in his films, he enjoys the pain, torture and death that the characters are put through. Somewhere in the shadows of his film something is sitting and smiling. With this story, which has the same plot points, murder, torture, inestimable cruelty, Goddard is winking at us. It is all make-believe, fun, if a little gruesome. Children’s games of war in the playground. There is a place for all stories and ways of telling them but at my age I am started to get a little tired of bleak, never-ending nihilism, where the only reward of life is a sad, bloody end.
Having said that we are presented with stories of redemption that do not work out and Chris Hemsworth, sans shirt, is a sexy Sir Jasper Naughty-Bonce. He plays it well and I guess the role makes sense for no shirt, but you cannot help feeling there is some pandering going on here. To say I disliked him throughout this film is praise indeed for his betrayal. The nasty streak in him plays well on screen. The film, characters and their stories drag you in if you are prepared to be patient and pay attention and with a snip-snapping way of presenting the tale and a long running time it is testament to Goddard that at no time did I get fidgety and the end credits had rolled my wife remarked on the slight pong of my sweat, that's how invested I was.
The twists in the story are good in general and most I will confess I did not see coming. The violence is cartoonish and not gratuitous and without spoiling the tale we are left with some hope.
All the actors are good with Lewis Pullman, Bill Pullman’s son not only being a chip-off-the-old-block in his looks but also in his ability, outstanding and Hemsworth sexy-sliming his way throughout. No film is without flaws and perhaps the running time is a tad too long and at least one character starts off with a backstory but is dropped soon into the running time. You never find out exactly what they were doing there but for one thing. A further reason into the reasons for the El Royale’s existence would have been good. Perhaps this is for another film. Overall Bad Times at the El Royale is a strong and competent film, well-directed, well-acted, it is violent, thrilling and subverts expectations. The chopping and changing storyline and the violence and unpleasant characters will not be for all but if you like these almost cartoonish-style violent thrillers then give this a go.
Bad Times at the El Royale is good times for the film fan.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2021-01-02T13:09:19Z
Bad Times at the El Royale could have been just another Tarantino wannabe but skilfully directed by Drew Goddard it subverts most expectations the longer it goes on. With a solid and small cast, the whole story is strongly underpinned. Certainly, filming from different character’s perspectives and swimming fully in the non-linear pool we are not in virgin territory but with the pace generally staying at frenetic Goddard keeps your eyes glued to the screen and caring what is happening.
Truth be told for this jaded old fart watching several story points were lost on me and surprised me at the reveal, although that damn-attractive Dakota Johnson’s storyline quicky unravelled with half an hour of the running time. As I say I have watched and read a lot of fiction and I am incredibly old.
The vivid colours of the cinematography help distract from what is basically a stage-based story and give the film a comic-book fantasy edge even though we are strictly in a nasty adult world here. Here is where I feel the big difference is between this being a Drew Goddard film and a Tarantino film. I have always got the impression from Tarantino that he somehow really enjoys the dark violence and death in his films, he enjoys the pain, torture and death that the characters are put through. Somewhere in the shadows of his film something is sitting and smiling. With this story, which has the same plot points, murder, torture, inestimable cruelty, Goddard is winking at us. It is all make-believe, fun, if a little gruesome. Children’s games of war in the playground. There is a place for all stories and ways of telling them but at my age I am started to get a little tired of bleak, never-ending nihilism, where the only reward of life is a sad, bloody end.
Having said that we are presented with stories of redemption that do not work out and Chris Hemsworth, sans shirt, is a sexy Sir Jasper Naughty-Bonce. He plays it well and I guess the role makes sense for no shirt, but you cannot help feeling there is some pandering going on here. To say I disliked him throughout this film is praise indeed for his betrayal. The nasty streak in him plays well on screen.
The film, characters and their stories drag you in if you are prepared to be patient and pay attention and with a snip-snapping way of presenting the tale and a long running time it is testament to Goddard that at no time did I get fidgety and the end credits had rolled my wife remarked on the slight pong of my sweat, that's how invested I was.
The twists in the story are good in general and most I will confess I did not see coming. The violence is cartoonish and not gratuitous and without spoiling the tale we are left with some hope.
All the actors are good with Lewis Pullman, Bill Pullman’s son not only being a chip-off-the-old-block in his looks but also in his ability, outstanding and Hemsworth sexy-sliming his way throughout. No film is without flaws and perhaps the running time is a tad too long and at least one character starts off with a backstory but is dropped soon into the running time. You never find out exactly what they were doing there but for one thing. A further reason into the reasons for the El Royale’s existence would have been good. Perhaps this is for another film.
Overall Bad Times at the El Royale is a strong and competent film, well-directed, well-acted, it is violent, thrilling and subverts expectations. The chopping and changing storyline and the violence and unpleasant characters will not be for all but if you like these almost cartoonish-style violent thrillers then give this a go.
Bad Times at the El Royale is good times for the film fan.