Bad Times at the El Royale

Written & Directed by: Drew Goddard
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman and Chris Hemsworth

Now here’s a movie I should have loved. It had all the elements I like in a big screen star-studded film; it feels weird and intriguing, its characters chew up the screen with monolithic yet fun dialogue, it pays affectionate homage to the film noir genre, and it has an underlying nuance of social commentary. So why did I walk out of the theater unsatisfied?

I think Bad Times at the El Royale is a case of the smart, stylish film with a great cast that’s all style with no real substance. The film never lived up to the promise of its stunning opening scene. It came close at times, but the overall pacing and lack of suspense just had it sitting there like a lump too many times between action sequences to ever satisfy any expectations.

Worst of all Bad Times at the El Royale commits the two biggest cardinal rules of all, that of being too clever for its own good, and worse, waiting so long to fill you in on what’s happening that when you do figure it out, it just doesn’t matter.

Here’s The Storyline

Set in 1969, Bad Times at the El Royale introduces us to a group of strangers who find themselves at this run down eccentric hotel divided evenly across the California and Nevada border. The main strangers, Father Daniel Flynn (Bridges), an aging priest, Darlene (Erivo), a soul singer, Seymour (Hamm) a vacuum cleaner salesman, and Emily (Johnson) a crass southerner, soon find out that the hotel has a solitary employee, Miles (Pullman), who really doesn’t want them there at all, but has them sign in anyway.

Each one of these strangers has a secret to hide and as this fateful night progresses, each will be presented with one last chance at their own redemption, that is before all hell breaks loose inside and outside of the hotel, and their time runs out.

At times Director Drew Goddard (The Cabin In The Woods) delivers a very stylish and vibrant film filled with mystery and suspense, but it keeps falling short of its ambitions and constantly slows the pace until you realize this is a very long film.

The acting performances were uniformly wonderful throughout, with Bridges, Erivo, and Hemsworth each handing out some juicy Tarantino styled bits. Strangely enough, even the roulette table gives a memorable couple of tension filled moments.

My take… The film didn’t thrill me, but other people who saw it with me loved it. I guess it’s a toss up, you’ll either like this one or not. You choose.