Directed by:
Drew GoddardScreenplay:
Drew GoddardCinematography:
Seamus McGarveyComposer:
Michael GiacchinoCast:
Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman, Xavier Dolan, Shea Whigham, Mark O'Brien (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption... before everything goes to hell. (San Sebastian International Film Festival)
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Reviews (14)
A Tarantino flick without Tarantino. Whereas in his previous film, The Cabin in the Woods, Drew Goddard uniquely juggled the clichés of the horror genre, in Bad Times at the El Royale he only clumsily tries to cook something up from the ingredients of gangster movies and the diversity of characters placed in a precarious situation. But the problem lies in those characters. The definition of the two antagonistic characters (the girls) is weak and their random inclusion in the main storyline (Jeff Bridges looking for something) comes across as superficial. And the film’s least effective and worst-cast character is the one played by Chris Hemsworth, who should have instead kicked the film’s climax up a notch. The film also fails to properly exploit the potential of the “in the wrong place at the wrong time” motif. The intermingling of timeframes is not cleverly developed and the pace is needlessly slow in places, relying on dialogue that lacks refinement. However, Jeff Bridges gets the job done, Dakota is better suited to the role of a bitch than that of the dainty lady in Fifty Shades of Grey, and the young supporting actor Lewis Pullman ends up making the most sense of all.
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Perhaps a little too long, but otherwise very, very, very good. The cast is dominated by the fantastic Jeff Bridges and the super-appealing Cynthia Erivo, the script is full of surprises and, thanks to its unpredictability, is decently suspenseful as well (as the finale approached, I was thinking that now truly anything could happen, except perhaps an alien invasion), the colorful cinematography and various directorial ideas match the song soundtrack, and Giacchino's instrumentals manage to impress appropriately. I literally fell in love with the scene with the singing and the dismantling of the floor, but it's far from the only great scene. I'll spare you the unfair comparisons to Tarantino.
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The beginning stumped me, when it is not clear who is on which side of the barricade and what brought them to the hotel, as did the unexpected reveal of the multiple red herring storylines of the individual characters, which intentionally bring no surprises. However, the last act does not fit in at all with the previous events and for something long awaited brings a damn shortage of entertainment. Not to mention that, considering all the tough talk from before, it pulls its punches several times, even shamefully. It's a pity, especially because the setting and the cast are spot on.
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Like The Hateful Eight made by someone less skilled than Tarantino. What's missing is a proper splatter finale, dialogues and whole passages stretched to absurdity, and that specific dark humour feeling. The attempt to copy, or rather duplicate, is significant, but it does not produce the desired result. A few surprising murders and the unpredictability are OK, the location is also impressive, but 142 minutes is damn long in the company of such an unbalanced film.
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Several people arrive at a small hotel in the middle of nowhere. They have nothing in common at first glance, but in a few hours most of them will be dead, and the rest will be really upset. Drew Goddard directs a smart film in the style of Tarantino with interesting characters, good actors and fun direction. It does run out of breath a bit towards the end, but overall it manages to entertain quite nicely thanks to the ideas, the characters and a few rough twists. It probably won't be a genre classic like The Cabin in the Woods, though.
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