The promise of a B-movie thriller, littered with talent
across the board and an interesting setting is immense. Bad Times at the El
Royale is all those things, with heaps of homages and tributes to films in
a similar vein that have come before. This colorful affair has all the workings
of a truly special film, if they actually come together in an effective manner.
The El Royale is run-down hotel that sits on the border
between California and Nevada. It soon becomes a seedy battleground when seven
strangers — a cleric (Jeff Bridges), a soul singer (Cynthia Erivo), a traveling
salesman (Jon Hamm), two sisters (Dakota Johnson & Cailee Spaeny), the
manager (Lewis Pullman) and the mysterious Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth) —
converge on a fateful night for one last shot at redemption before everything
goes wrong.
A star-studded ensemble cast is easily amongst the most
enticing elements of Bad Times at the El Royale, and rightfully so.
Everyone delivers a good performance, with some standing out above the rest of
course, and instantly become the highlight amidst the more disappointing portions
of this thriller.
Performances from Erivo and Bridges bring the most depth to
the table, in part due to the slightly more detailed characters each receives.
However, Hemsworth emerges as the biggest winner here. His role as the
dastardly Billy Lee is both charming and somehow haunting at the same time,
embodying the cult leader status perfectly. Hemsworth is clearly enjoying the
smarmy nature of the character, and it shows in the performance.
Unfortunately, due to the sheer size of the cast, none of
the characters really get to shine in the end. The film is almost lost on who
should be the central character within the group, and thus it devolves into a
cluttered narrative, full of flashbacks and parallel storytelling that sets up
more questions than it’s willing to answer.
And in this jumbled structure, the film fails to really nail
down the direction it wants to go with the tone. The film is not lacking in
creativity nor ideas, and the craft behind it is still pretty great, but the
script feels as though writer and director Drew Goddard could’ve spent more
time on nailing the themes down. The first two acts operate in this fun genre
thriller that is suitable for the premise even if flawed, but by the third act
is dips into a few emotional moments that feel completely unearned.
Bad Times at the El Royale is far from a bad film,
just disappointing. With nothing but quality on his resume, the name Drew
Goddard is beginning to carry some weight and some anticipation, and this film
doesn’t quite meet them. Hemsworth gets the biggest praise for the utter
commitment to his role, but the cast delivers across the board. It’s a fun,
albeit silly at times and way too long, thriller that seems to bite off just a
bit more than it can chew and suffers for it.
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