The Movie: Bad Times at the El Royale
The Director: Drew Goddard
The Cast: Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Chris Hemsworth, Jon Hamm, Lewis Pulman, Cailee Spaeny
The Story: Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe's El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption - before everything goes to hell.
The Review:
Drew Goddard is one of my favorite film makers having a resume packed with genre favorites like Cloverfield, The Cabin in the Woods, and The Martian so expectations were high going into this movie. I did end up enjoying it but not as much as I had hoped as it felt very derivative and the best way I can describe it is "Tarantino Light." There was a ton of style but little substance although Goddard was able to get some solid performances from most of the cast with the main exception being Jeff Bridges who just kind of showed up as Jeff Bridges and Chris Hemsworth who just showed up to show off his abs.
While the story's attempts at twisting and turning are meant to keep you captivated, it just isn't that interesting and neither are most of the characters. I actually really liked both Dakota Johnson who always does a great job mixing in bits of humor into her performances and Cynthia Erivo who steals the show both with her singing and her acting. In the end, no amount of acting could have saved this movie from being mediocre at best which is very disappointing considering the level of talent involved in the project from top to bottom.
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