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Phillip McSween (751 KP) rated Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) in Movies
Feb 13, 2019
Great Mystery
A strange mystery unfolds at a seedy motel that resides on the border of California and Nevada.
Acting: 10
Beginning: 10
Characters: 10
Cinematography/Visuals: 10
The cinematics of Bad Times At the El Royale are both vibrant and dark at the same time. The El Royale hotel itself is captured in a nostalgic sense where you get the feel that it’s full of history and not all good history either. There is a seedy undertone that’s unshakeable throughout. I love how director Drew Goddard plays with different elements like rain and close spaces. The two-way mirror scenes definitely increase the intensity of the film. There is so much to appreciate here, I will probably have to watch this again to get the full grasp.
Conflict: 7
While the film definitely could have used more action, the scenes that do exist are pretty solid. It leaves you guessing as you have no idea how things are going to play out. Who will die next? Will this person find what they’re looking for? The conflict is not always driven through direct action, but tension as well. There is one scene in particular involving Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, and Dakota Johnson that is easily my favorite in the entire movie.
Genre: 9
The characters really contribute in making this a strong mystery. Most times, it’s hard to tell up from down and you get just a little bit closer as you learn the backstory of each of the motel residents. From beginning to end, you wonder how things will ultimately play out amongst the group. Clever twists and turns along the way help to give the film life.
Memorability: 8
Never quite seen anything like it which makes Bad Times memorable in and of itself. It all goes back to the one scene I mentioned above, a scene that paralyzed me and had me on the edge of my seat. It was masterfully crafted and I can think of about three other scenes (at least) that come almost as close. Much discussion was had on the drive home.
Pace: 7
Although the twists keep things interesting the movie does get slow in some spots. It’s almost like it’s lulling you to sleep before picking up the pace yet again, like a car shifting gears. Some may have balked at the singing interludes, but I welcomed them. Erivo’s voice is captivating and heartwarming.
Plot: 10
Great storytelling here filled with intrigue and misdirection. From beginning to end, I felt pretty entertained for the most part. Watching everything unfold and all the stories collide was a definite treat.
Resolution: 10
Overall: 91
Great beginning that hooks you immediately. A shady cast of characters. Solid performances from the likes of Bridges and Chris Hemsworth. Solid ending. Bad Times At the El Royale is an awesome movie that is well worth your time.
Acting: 10
Beginning: 10
Characters: 10
Cinematography/Visuals: 10
The cinematics of Bad Times At the El Royale are both vibrant and dark at the same time. The El Royale hotel itself is captured in a nostalgic sense where you get the feel that it’s full of history and not all good history either. There is a seedy undertone that’s unshakeable throughout. I love how director Drew Goddard plays with different elements like rain and close spaces. The two-way mirror scenes definitely increase the intensity of the film. There is so much to appreciate here, I will probably have to watch this again to get the full grasp.
Conflict: 7
While the film definitely could have used more action, the scenes that do exist are pretty solid. It leaves you guessing as you have no idea how things are going to play out. Who will die next? Will this person find what they’re looking for? The conflict is not always driven through direct action, but tension as well. There is one scene in particular involving Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, and Dakota Johnson that is easily my favorite in the entire movie.
Genre: 9
The characters really contribute in making this a strong mystery. Most times, it’s hard to tell up from down and you get just a little bit closer as you learn the backstory of each of the motel residents. From beginning to end, you wonder how things will ultimately play out amongst the group. Clever twists and turns along the way help to give the film life.
Memorability: 8
Never quite seen anything like it which makes Bad Times memorable in and of itself. It all goes back to the one scene I mentioned above, a scene that paralyzed me and had me on the edge of my seat. It was masterfully crafted and I can think of about three other scenes (at least) that come almost as close. Much discussion was had on the drive home.
Pace: 7
Although the twists keep things interesting the movie does get slow in some spots. It’s almost like it’s lulling you to sleep before picking up the pace yet again, like a car shifting gears. Some may have balked at the singing interludes, but I welcomed them. Erivo’s voice is captivating and heartwarming.
Plot: 10
Great storytelling here filled with intrigue and misdirection. From beginning to end, I felt pretty entertained for the most part. Watching everything unfold and all the stories collide was a definite treat.
Resolution: 10
Overall: 91
Great beginning that hooks you immediately. A shady cast of characters. Solid performances from the likes of Bridges and Chris Hemsworth. Solid ending. Bad Times At the El Royale is an awesome movie that is well worth your time.
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) in Movies
Oct 24, 2018 (Updated Oct 24, 2018)
Good ensemble cast (2 more)
Cool set design and use of space
Nice cinematography
Enjoy Your Stay
In this day and age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to go into a movie without already knowing a bunch of information about it. Somehow Bad Times At The El Royale managed that. Even though I was a week late to seeing this movie, I was still able to go into it with very little knowledge about what was going to unfold. That in and of itself is an impressive feat in 2018.
I had a great time with this movie. I loved the cast here, Jeff Bridges and Jon Hamm are among my favourite actors working in Hollywood and I though that Chris Hemsworth did a fantastic job playing the villain for a change. The rest of the cast were fantastic too, other than Dakota Johnson, who was pretty wooden, (as we have come to expect from her.) As an aside, Cynthia Erivo's voice completely blew me away, I know that she has done some Broadway shows in the past, but she sounded incredible in this and I liked the way that her singing was tied in with the plot.
Bad Times is written and directed by Drew Goddard, who was also behind Cabin In The Woods and there are some similarities here, if you swap the horror elements out for mystery. I have also seen multiple reviews compare this to a Tarantino movie. There are obviously similarities in the structure that this film uses and the out-of-chronological-order structure that a Tarantino movie tends to follow, but I'd argue that Bad Times has it's own distinct and unique style.
I also thought that the cinematography was very effective throughout the film. The opening scene was very well shot, as was the scene when Hemsworth's character was introduced. The score also worked well with the plot and the dialogue and script were well written too.
The main negative that affected my enjoyment of the movie, were the decisions made regarding the pacing. The movie is split up so that we see things happen out of sequence or they are seen more than once from a different perspective. We are introduced to each new character and then we are given their backstory via a flashback. The main issue with this structure is that the flashbacks break the momentum of the events happening in the current story. Without spoiling too much, towards the end of the movie, everything comes to a head and an intense fight/shootout breaks out. Then, for some unknown reason, the filmmakers decide to slam on the brakes and give us another arbitrary flashback. It totally broke the immersion and intensity of the shootout sequence for me.
Overall, I had a good time watching Bad Times. I had no expectations going in as I didn't know much about the movie other than what had been shown in the trailers and I enjoyed witnessing what the movie had to offer. If you are looking for an exciting, suspenseful thriller, then you could definitely do worse than spending a stay at The El Royale.
I had a great time with this movie. I loved the cast here, Jeff Bridges and Jon Hamm are among my favourite actors working in Hollywood and I though that Chris Hemsworth did a fantastic job playing the villain for a change. The rest of the cast were fantastic too, other than Dakota Johnson, who was pretty wooden, (as we have come to expect from her.) As an aside, Cynthia Erivo's voice completely blew me away, I know that she has done some Broadway shows in the past, but she sounded incredible in this and I liked the way that her singing was tied in with the plot.
Bad Times is written and directed by Drew Goddard, who was also behind Cabin In The Woods and there are some similarities here, if you swap the horror elements out for mystery. I have also seen multiple reviews compare this to a Tarantino movie. There are obviously similarities in the structure that this film uses and the out-of-chronological-order structure that a Tarantino movie tends to follow, but I'd argue that Bad Times has it's own distinct and unique style.
I also thought that the cinematography was very effective throughout the film. The opening scene was very well shot, as was the scene when Hemsworth's character was introduced. The score also worked well with the plot and the dialogue and script were well written too.
The main negative that affected my enjoyment of the movie, were the decisions made regarding the pacing. The movie is split up so that we see things happen out of sequence or they are seen more than once from a different perspective. We are introduced to each new character and then we are given their backstory via a flashback. The main issue with this structure is that the flashbacks break the momentum of the events happening in the current story. Without spoiling too much, towards the end of the movie, everything comes to a head and an intense fight/shootout breaks out. Then, for some unknown reason, the filmmakers decide to slam on the brakes and give us another arbitrary flashback. It totally broke the immersion and intensity of the shootout sequence for me.
Overall, I had a good time watching Bad Times. I had no expectations going in as I didn't know much about the movie other than what had been shown in the trailers and I enjoyed witnessing what the movie had to offer. If you are looking for an exciting, suspenseful thriller, then you could definitely do worse than spending a stay at The El Royale.
Gareth von Kallenbach (965 KP) rated Fifty Shades Darker (2017) in Movies
Jun 19, 2019
Anastasia Steele (Dakota Johnson) and Christian Grey (Jamie Dornan) have returned in “50 Shades Darker” which looks to continue the massive success of the series.
Picking up shortly after the last film, the newly single Anastasia has begun working her dream job as an assistant in a Seattle publishing company. When she is reunited with Christian at a social event, he pleads with her to take him back and offers to redefine the terms of their relationship agreement.
Although cautions, she takes him back and despite telling him she wants to take it slow, the first of many sex scenes follow.
Although happy to be reunited, the pair are plagued by issues from Christian’s past as well as his own inner demons which constantly pull at them and threaten to undermine their new relationship.
Of course much if it is little more than thinly veiled lip service designed to get them into the bedroom time and time again so the camera can focus on their bodies and Christian resorting to his old ways with all manner of restraints and devices.
One would think that a film that is supposed to be so erotic would be far more exciting and titillating but the film’s sex scenes are so dull and by the numbers you will soon find yourself losing interest. A big part of this goes to the total lack of chemistry between the leads. If you thought it was strained in the first film it is pretty much non-existent this time out. The dialogue is also not much better as it is laughably bad in areas and unintentionally funny. The monotone delivery of the leads does not help much as it seems like there is a competition to see how many shots of the beautiful Seattle area and their bodies can be creamed into the film.
Kim Bassinger does bring the film a bit of intrigue as a woman from Christian’s past, but she is not in the film enough to really make that much of a difference as pretty much all of the supporting characters are paper thin and not given the chance to grow.
I did like the film more than I liked the original film, but I continue to struggle with the appeal of the film series. The leads lack any chemistry and supporters of the BDSM lifestyle have said the series does not portray their lifestyle accurately and that what Christian does is abusive.
I posted the question that how much appeal would the series have if Christian was a struggling musician living in a hovel who could not even afford a Starbucks run. He would be considered a deeply damaged individual who women would run from. But package him up as a young and attractive billionaire, and it seems that common sense goes out the window as far as the ladies in his life go, and he gets a pass on behaviors that would be totally unacceptable to most.
For me the lack of eroticism, chemistry between the leads, and a compelling story could be overlooked as despite the issues, it does entertain. But when the characters are so hard to like, I found myself not having much sympathy for any obstacles they encountered. My advice, wait for the video as there are far more erotic and entertaining films on Netflix.
http://sknr.net/2017/02/09/50-shades-darker/
Picking up shortly after the last film, the newly single Anastasia has begun working her dream job as an assistant in a Seattle publishing company. When she is reunited with Christian at a social event, he pleads with her to take him back and offers to redefine the terms of their relationship agreement.
Although cautions, she takes him back and despite telling him she wants to take it slow, the first of many sex scenes follow.
Although happy to be reunited, the pair are plagued by issues from Christian’s past as well as his own inner demons which constantly pull at them and threaten to undermine their new relationship.
Of course much if it is little more than thinly veiled lip service designed to get them into the bedroom time and time again so the camera can focus on their bodies and Christian resorting to his old ways with all manner of restraints and devices.
One would think that a film that is supposed to be so erotic would be far more exciting and titillating but the film’s sex scenes are so dull and by the numbers you will soon find yourself losing interest. A big part of this goes to the total lack of chemistry between the leads. If you thought it was strained in the first film it is pretty much non-existent this time out. The dialogue is also not much better as it is laughably bad in areas and unintentionally funny. The monotone delivery of the leads does not help much as it seems like there is a competition to see how many shots of the beautiful Seattle area and their bodies can be creamed into the film.
Kim Bassinger does bring the film a bit of intrigue as a woman from Christian’s past, but she is not in the film enough to really make that much of a difference as pretty much all of the supporting characters are paper thin and not given the chance to grow.
I did like the film more than I liked the original film, but I continue to struggle with the appeal of the film series. The leads lack any chemistry and supporters of the BDSM lifestyle have said the series does not portray their lifestyle accurately and that what Christian does is abusive.
I posted the question that how much appeal would the series have if Christian was a struggling musician living in a hovel who could not even afford a Starbucks run. He would be considered a deeply damaged individual who women would run from. But package him up as a young and attractive billionaire, and it seems that common sense goes out the window as far as the ladies in his life go, and he gets a pass on behaviors that would be totally unacceptable to most.
For me the lack of eroticism, chemistry between the leads, and a compelling story could be overlooked as despite the issues, it does entertain. But when the characters are so hard to like, I found myself not having much sympathy for any obstacles they encountered. My advice, wait for the video as there are far more erotic and entertaining films on Netflix.
http://sknr.net/2017/02/09/50-shades-darker/