I just wonder what the heck was on that tape.
If Tarantino and Edgar Wright had a baby... it would have been born at the El Royale.
I wanted to love this movie because I loved The Cabin in the Woods but I left slightly disappointed. It’s still a good movie and fun to watch. The movie looks fantastic. There were some great oners in here and the cinematography overall is great. I really did like all the crazy intertwined stories. Most of the characters were interesting enough but we hardly know them. Seeing Chris Hemsworth with his shirt off most of the movie sure is something. The soundtrack is great and Cynthia Erivo’s singing is really good. I just wish they stuck the landing a little bit better and this was 20 minutes shorter.
A film of two halves. The first hour is a very watchable tangled web of deceit, betrayal, crime and greed. It features some really impressive cinematography and a direction that is clearly inspired by the Coens and Tarantino. The (almost) single location setting works, and the air of mystery adds to the adequate performances by Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm, Cynthia Erivo and Dakota Johnson.
The second half however is just a mess of sillyness, poor scriptwriting and "how do we end this while stretching it out long enough".
A missed opportunity.
This movie made me think about Tarantino more than once. The photography, the dialogues, the editing, the soundtrack, Jeff Bridges,...
Its not as beautiful but it’s close to it.
The casting is excellent. I didn’t like Chris Hemsworth that much. I mean he wasn’t all that bad but Jeff Bridges and Cynthia Erivo stole the show when he should have do it.
Honorable mention goes to Miles, the character. His awakening at the end was just so perfect.
The soundtrack is also perfect and add up to the tension. Cynthia Erivo’s voice almost always a cappella was so good.
I recommend this movie if you liked The Hateful Eight.
Nothing is earned. You either want to have learned more about a character or you start to know them and realize you don't care. I can't care about 8 individual characters that don't have any goals or enemies or anything in common.
Best thing I can say about it, is it would probably make for an interesting book.
I loved it, until Chris Hemsworth showed up at the hotel and started acting dopey.
The approach is not original, the development does not bring anything new. From the middle of the movie everything falls down
Great first hour, disappointing from this point on.
Very interesting movie with unique concept and a terrific cast. Acting is all good, cinematography is great, but overall the movie was a bit slow and gave me no reason to love the movie.
To anyone that has not seen it yet: DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER. Really doesn't do justice to the movie and spoils too much.
This movie had style. It wasn't perfect, no, but the overall tone and feel was just right.
I liked the way they intertwined all the subplots, slowly unwrapping the main story. Some of them could have been a little bit longer, though. As I said before, the style of this movie was spot on. Beautifully shot, great cinematography, really great music choices. Cynthia Erivo's singing was really nice, as well as the songs chosen for the soundtrack, which often were part of the actual scenes of the film. Really liked that.
The casting was pretty good. I felt neutral with Dakota Johnson and Chris Hemsworth's performances. I had already appreciated Spaeny's acting in Pacific Rim: Uprising and she confirmed to have a lot of talent. Jon Hamm's character really carried the first act and that's a testament to the actor; going from vacuum salesman to FBI agent that convincingly is not for everyone. The chemistry between Bridges and Erivo's was so good. Two outstanding performances.
In conclusion, I liked the tone of the movie, that mix of mystery and action, with some humor sprinkled here and there. As many have said, it did felt a bit Tarantino-like; you decide if that's good or bad. The main problem was making a 2 hour 20 minutes movie with material for a 2 hour movie. Sometimes the film was just too slow. But, it's definitely a good movie that did go unnoticed this year and that I definitely recommend.
8/10
That singing-mini heist scene while they retrieve the money is really well done. One of my favorite
Fair. Quite a bit of Tarantino worship, and that's not a bad thing, but it also fails in the same regard as say, Hateful Eight did. Just a lot of fluff and meaningless conversations, and nothing to take away from it or have any reason to really watch it again or share with others who haven't seen it.
Could've been better as a mini series, each episode taking on each character, fleshing them out a little more.
Bad Times at the El Royale
I've seen this type of movie done before, but much better.
It's manages to weave an interesting mystery, but in the end couldn't care and left me unsatisfied.
The music and atmosphere were great.
The acting was good overall.
6/10
#NicksMiniReview
https://t.co/2bSiazUGli
I really enjoyed this movie. It was different, mysterious, and surprisingly intense. I appreciate the director and the idea very much.
Bad Times at the El Royale was much different than I expected.
When I turned on this film, I expected to watch a loud, fun action flick that didn't take itself too seriously. Instead, what I got was a serious action drama with a good amount of mystery behind its characters that tells each story well, despite the amount of main characters this film has. All the performances hold up well (save for Luis Pullman, who I felt was a bit obnoxious at times, though really he did a damn good job as well for the most part). It was certainly fun seeing Chris Hemsworth in a much different role than what I'm personally used to with him, having really only watched him as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
My only real complaints are that this movie does feel like it drags a bit sometimes, and I wish some characters had a bit more development with their stories, specifically Emily and Rose Summer. It was easy to get the gist of their deal with Billy Lee and who they were, but I would have liked a bit more of a backstory behind them than what we got, especially since its their characters' relationship with Billy Lee that drives pretty much the entire third act's plot.
Overall an 8/10
This movie was beautiful to watch. I loved the style and setting of the movie. The actors were wonderful. I LOVE all-star cast movies! Cynthia Erivo voice is so beautiful. I could listen to her sing ANYTHING! It was an interesting journey, until the end of the movie. I feel incomplete not knowing more about each of the main characters before they came to prior to coming to the El Royale. I also want to know more about Darlene Sweet and Father Daniel Flynn aka Dock O'Kelly's ending . Nice attempt by Drew Goddard.
Although it wasn't terrible, I was very dissapointed. I was expecting a much better storyline. Furthermore, 2h20m is too long for only about 1h of action. The original idea of this movie was good, it could have been brilliant but the second part of the film was just a mess.
Great images, nice storytelling and mostly interesting characters. But quite slow story development, could have been shorter. But overall a good movie. If you like Tarantino you‘ll like this too.
The movie is not actually what you think it is as you seen in the trailer, for better viewing dont watch the trailer, it may spoils the movie. Overall, this is a very well made movie from bottom to the top and its pretty underrated too. One of the best movie of the year with great use of music.
Cool soundtrack and a good cast, but ultimately it's empty and just about the look of the thing.
Fast Times at El Royale High
The opening and middle act of this movie really are something else, slick editing, great characters, amazing cinematography, bouncy dialogue and stunning set design, the film is just overflowing with attitude and charm. I can't overstate how much I enjoyed the opening, just for the final act to really lose it's way and stumble over it's own feet at the finish line. El Royale could have reached perfection with just a bit more refinement on the tail end, but is still great nonetheless.
TL;DR a superb movie stifled by an unpolished ending.
It was a bit too long for my taste, but surprisingly I only checked the time 5-6 Minutes before it ended.
A good flick. But nothing to watch twice.
Just another silly movie....waist of time
Let's get this out of the way immediately: Quentin Tarantino. Bad Times at the El Royale just screams Tarantino to an extent that would make Guy Ritchie blush. There are time jumps. There are chapter titles. There are several needle drops. There's a dance scene at Jackrabbit Slim's. Okay, maybe not the last part, but you get the idea.
Is the movie too long? Oh yes. Are there too many characters than are needed to tell the story? Far too many.
Look, I liked this movie, it was fun, but I will never watch it again because it was eleven pounds of story in a five-pound bag.
The movie clearly has great actors doing a wonderful job, and there are loads of twists during the runtime, but the story - or maybe stories is the better descriptor - never truly comes together. I thought I was watching a movie about a heist gone bad, but it's that combined with layers and layers of chaos. Essentially, BTatER is five stories happening at once, and none of them coincide, instead they collide.
I think the perfect analogy for the main problem with the film can be found within the titular location itself: The El Royale is located on the state line of Nevada, and California, and this is played up heavily, leading one to ask "does this have a lot to do with the story?" The answer being "no." And that goes for every part of the story. There's no organic link here. The plot is just an intricate set of dominos knocking each other over in a beautiful sequence, but only because they were set up to do so. What does a soul singer have to do with a cult leader? Nothing, really, but they're both here.
This is an odd one to review, because I liked so much about it (mainly Dakota Johnson. Can we please cast her in more roles like this?), and even though I think it is over bloated, it has to be that way for the story to work, while at the same time being needlessly weighty. Weird, no? It's like building a machine that only needs three moving parts to operate, then building the same machine with extra parts, intentionally designed inextricable, not for function, but for aesthetic.
Ultimately, it was a good time at the El Royale, but I will not be returning. If I ever get the craving again, I'll have my Royale with cheese.
Derivative, predictable, and dull
Bad Times at the El Royale is from Drew Godard, writer/director of the genre-bending, utterly insane, and extremely funny The Cabin in the Woods (2011) and is a similarly stylised cine-literate genre mash-up. However, whereas in Cabin, the twist upon twist upon twist had a cumulative effect, with the story getting better the longer it went on and the weirder things got, in Bad Times it's a case of ever diminishing returns. By the time we reach the end of the lengthy 141-minute runtime (more on that later), with everything and everyone shoehorned into neatly explained niches, the film has been shorn of its vitality, leaving one with an overriding impression of "meh". If Cabin was a genuinely new spin on a clichéd old story, playing with and subverting genre at every turn, Bad Times is singularly unable to free itself from the most oppressively derivative of its generic constraints.
For my complete review, please visit: https://boxd.it/xETTR
easily an hour too long. watered down tarantino. often felt like a satire of itself.
Lewis Pullman was the best actor in this movie.
Excellent neo-noir that I think I will enjoy even more the next time I watch it...and there will be a next time! What happens if L.A. Confidential and Pulp Fiction have a love child? You get this film. Check it out! (Watch for an unrecognizable cameo by Nick Offerman!)
crossover of four rooms, pulp fiction and hatefull eight
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.
The PLOT is interesting and the soundtrack fits well. With every death the movie gets more interesting. I was really hoping someone would come looking for the agent. But his side of story was cut short. I wish there was a second part focusing on the tape and management and what was special agent doing there?
10 - Totally ninja
I hadn't invested what this movie was about, so the plot twists and such were surprising and really good. What a story and such good performances.
Good acting with intertwined plots.
Builds up slowly and then moves in too top gear. All hell breaks loose. The bellboy/receptonist/barman all one character certainly was the Suprise package towards the end. All is revealed. Well worth a watch.
Well acted and full of twists. Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo and Chris Hemsworth were great. Hemsworth is quite chilling as a crazed cult leader.
Un puñado de gente rara y misteriosa se hospeda en un hotel raro y misterioso dando lugar a situaciones raras y misteriosas.
No están involucrados los hermanos Cohen.
Bad times may have hit the El Royale, but I had a good time during my stay. Shot through with style and surprises aplenty, this is a decent film that, despite the long running time, is worth your attention.
From the writer of Cabin in the Woods and this cast? Sold! I may have gotten my expectations a bit high, but even so this was a solid, if a tad overlong, film. It has a lot of Tarantino influence and some truly great individual scenes. What sort of pulls it back down from the heights it hits is the climax. For all of the mystery and twisty-turning throughout the first half of the film, it loses steam at the end with a somewhat mystery-light conclusion. Still, it is a pretty solid watch and I'd recommend it for the cast alone.
This was a perfect movie! Awesome story, directing, actors and soundtrack. A clear 10/10! The setup was like a Coen movie, execution like Tarantino - the best from the best.
survirors was expected tbh!! first 1hr was boring; the second one was amazing! i just wish it had more violence and deaths!
What a fascinating hodgepodge of Elmore Leonard, Thomas Pynchon, PT Anderson, Michael Cimino, Paul Schrader, Quentin Tarantino, Tracy Letts, and Robert Altman. Somewhere in here, there is absolutely a working movie, but it really seems like the pacing and editing don’t necessarily make it easy to find.
2 / 2 directing & technical aspect
1 / 1 story
1 / 1 act I
1 / 1 act II
.5 / 1 act III
1 / 1 acting
1 / 1 writing
0 / 1 originality
0 / 1 stays with you
-.5 / 1 misc (pacing)
7 out of 10
Ultimately it's rather hollow. It's overly long, which adds to it feeling kind of pointless by the end. It's another Tarantino style crime mystery, that doesn't seem to get as much flack as the lower budgeted ones, for some reason. All that said, it's a fun watch. Has style for days, with a great ensemble cast. The first two thirds are damn good, but it peters out by the end.
I can't remember the last time that a film was a consistent slow burn in the way this film is. The film very much has a Tarantino-esque feel to it - I kept flashing back to The Hateful Eight as the movie went on. I adored the first half of that film and generally disliked where the film ended up. This film did not change direction like that film did and I feel that it is superior to that film.
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One hell of a thriller!
The twist and turns this movies takes you on is so fun. It'll keep you in the edge of your seat.
HIGHLY RECOMMEND
what the hell was on the old movie?!
same problem with the Artemis hotel, just doesn't feel complete.
Overall, a good film, but not great. It was fun to watch and had its moments. It's a really long movie, at 2hrs 20 min, but there's almost not enough background to these characters to make you care all that much. I loved Cynthia Erivo's singing, she is talented.
I don't usually go for such "trapped in one place" character study movies, but this one really appealed to me.
Drew Goddard makes good movies.
Fantastic movie, tight script, great charachters, beautifully shot. Cynthia Erivo eats up the screen the camera loves her, a really must see film.
Shout by Saint PaulyBlockedParent2018-11-10T13:41:28Z
Bad Times at the El Royale is a trip. And not just a head trip, it's also a trip into the past and a trip to the movies because when people say 'Let's go to the movies,' this is the experience they're talking about. Bad Times isn't a remake, it isn't a sequel or a prequel or a biopic, it's a real, honest to God original movie that works well and works hard.
In a year of unoriginal ideas and safe bets, thank Goddard for the El Royale!