Rating of
2.5/4
Mike A - wrote on 12/28/18
For about an hour, Drew Goddard's Bad Times at the El Royale is a crazy-good neo-noir thriller to sink your teeth into -- an engaging mystery box with a fascinating setting, colorful visuals and interesting characters who hold dark and dangerous secrets.
Then the film kind of derails, but that's not to say it's completely without its joys. Chris Hemsworth's nut-job character provides much-needed humor in the latter half of the film (speaking of which, the film is very dark and bleak, and much less humorous than I was expecting -- an injection of humor could have arguably given the film a little bit more life).
It's a fairly good movie ultimately but the first hour wrote a check that the rest of it couldn't quite cash.
