Bad Times at the El Royale

“This is not a place for a priest, Father. You shouldn't be here.”

Filmology Rating: 3.17 out of 4

Bad Times at the El Royale is directed by Drew Goddard who wrote The Martian. If you have seen Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, then you have seen this film. Just take The Hateful Eight, set it during the 1960s/70s in a hotel and you get a new product to make money on.

My general consensus for the film is that it was The Hateful Eight in a hotel with less interesting dialogue and characters. The movie starts interesting, then every character's motivations and secrets are revealed halfway through the film, then it's boring, and the plot is solved by brute force. However, I really do love the first act because I was wondering who these characters really were and where the plot was going until the film just straight up tells you in a series of flashbacks.

This movie is the worst Tarantino movie that Tarantino never made because this film tries to do the clever "tell the story in jump around flashbacks that don't connect in any way until the end of the film." The movie tries to be smart in that regard, but ironically it's so dumb. Jeff Bridges gives a good performance in this as always and Jon Hamm, a guaranteed solid, but Chris Hemsworth comes out of nowhere in this and steals every scene he's in by chewing up the scenery and embracing the weirdness of his character. Reminds me of how Channing Tatum appeared out of nowhere in The Hateful Eight. This movie is also way too long at 2 hours and 20 minutes. A lot of the stupid flashbacks could have been cut or the film could have focused on the characters more. Only one character in this has any kind of arc and it still wasn't interesting.

There is no protagonist or main character in this film either (just like a usual Tarantino film). This movie has so many characters that it forces you to focus on, but none of them aren't really likable and due to uninteresting characters and dialogue, I found most of the film very bland. Almost like a computer took the Tarantino formula and produced this.

If you want to see The Hateful Eight without top-par dialogue, then this is the film for you.

Rating: Rent It

-Nolan