Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Muurloen

Muurloen

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4.00 star(s) Rating: 4.00/5 1 Votes
Title: Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Tagline: All roads lead here

Genre: Thriller, Crime, Mystery, Drama

Director: Drew Goddard

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Chris Hemsworth, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman, Xavier Dolan, Shea Whigham, Mark O'Brien, Charles Halford, Jim O'Heir, Gerry Nairn, Alvina August, London Morrison, Bethany Brown, Rebecca Toolan, Hannah Zirke, Billy Wickman, Charlotte Mosby, William B. Davis, Manny Jacinto, Tally Rodin, Sophia Lauchlin Hirt, Jonathan Whitesell, Synto D. Misati, Austin Abell, Katharine Isabelle, Sarah Smyth

Release: 2018-10-04

Runtime: 142

Plot: Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption.

 
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Attog

Attog

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This made top 10 worst movies of the year in my local newspapers annual list.
 
Locnar

Locnar

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This movie was great, one of the best of the year imo. Great retro vibe.
 
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Wombat

Wombat

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Look, everyone loves Cabin in the Woods (which Goddard co-wrote and had his first directing credit on). But the question was always how much of Cabin was him, and how much was Joss Whedon (who co-wrote and was credited as a second unit director).

The entirely Whedon-free El Royale verifies that... Cabin was mostly Whedon.

It's by no means bad - Goddard can write a twist, as even a brief skim of his Buffy/Angel/Lost credits will attest - but all the wit and charm of Cabin is missing.

I would peg it around my fifth favorite movie I saw in 2018 (admittedly, a small list), but there's no surprise this didn't become a cult classic like Cabin.
 
nu_11

nu_11

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This movie is good. Not great, however.

I agree with Wombat.

Goddard worked on Cabin in the Woods (2011) and The Martian. I expected more from this movie overall. I can't believe this was his directorial debut movie.
 
Fucker

Fucker

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Muurloen said:
Then your paper has no taste.
Click to expand...

When you can't do anything, become a teacher. When you are bad at being a teacher, become a critic. When you are a bad critic, become a child molester or a critic for a small newspaper.
 
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Dandai

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I thought the movie was -ok-. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly good either. It’s worth a watch if you don’t have anything else in your queue.
 
Brando

Asshat Brando

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Thought it was worth a watch at least. The Manson family type vibes was cool.
 
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Attog

Attog

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Well I'm happy to hear that the paper was wrong and this is good. I had avoided it but I'll definitely check it out now.
 
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S

sike

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I thought this film was awesome, very surprised after I saw it on a plane to see how the majority of reviews were poor.
 
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Chanur

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sike said:
I thought this film was awesome, very surprised after I saw it on a plane to see how the majority of reviews were poor.
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I also loved it even though it wasn't exactly what I was expecting.
 
Guurn

Guurn

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I enjoyed this too much. The end was slightly disappointing but overall grade A.
 
Kiroy

Kiroy

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Guurn said:
I enjoyed this too much. The end was slightly disappointing but overall grade A.
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i'd give it a solid b, like dom said, something didn't click like in an A movie and i'm not really sure I can put my finger on what it was
 
j00t

j00t

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Dom said:
It had all the right pieces but didn't quite fit together for me. Great performances all around though.
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This is my exact sentiment as well. About halfway through the movie I found myself not really all that interested, but I don't really know why. Acting was great, story was good... I just was counting the minutes until the end
 
A

a_skeleton_05

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I'm thinking my issue with it might be that it started off as a sort of mystery where you can tell all these various interesting characters are converging on the same place at the same time, and you're trying to figure out how they're all connected to the first scene. But then
Hamm's character gets killed
and it just devolves into chaos composed of various elements. More focus on the hidden camera stuff in place of some of the singer and the sisters would have made it mesh a bit better I think.
 
Phazael

Phazael

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I liked it and it stuck out in my mind more than a lot of movies I have seen lately. And Hemsworth was creepy and mesmerizing in it, plus Jeff Bridges was fucking perfect. It reminded me a lot of older Tarrentino movies, but with much more of a noir stylized look to it. Very underrated movie.
 
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Movie information in first post provided by The Movie Database
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