Bad Times at the El Royale Movie Review

I just came up from cinema watching another movie for free called Bad Times at the El Royale. The movie can be considered a thriller although it's more like a drama-crime with a lot of mystery. Also note that we are talking about a big movie in terms of time as it is around 2 and a half hours long, so brace yourselves and buy popcorn!

The director and writer is the famous Drew Goddard who is known for Lost, The Cabin In The Woods and he also served as an executive producer of Daredevil (no wonder why this is still going well) and Defenders! The stars of the show are quite famous too but i won't tell you, for now i will keep the mystery and reveal them below!

Story-Plot

The story starts at a hotel room (based on later events we get to know that it's set at the end of 50s) in which he hides something under that room and then he dies! Then 10 years are passed and we got introduced to the hotel which is called EL Royale and some guests appear. The hotel was quite famous back then as many well known people stayed there but for some reason that changed. Also in the center of the hotel there are borders that divide it in half with Nevada and California being the in-between states.

The characters or the "guests" as they introduced themselves are:

• Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo): A very good black singer that is now run out of money and tries her luck wherever she finds a chance to. Apparently she is the only one that doesn't hide her identity.
• Father Flynn (Jeff Bridges): A priest that easily forgets things as to who he is, what he is doing there but there is more....
• Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm): A Vacuum Salesman who seem a bit racist towards blacks but actually is completely another person. 

• Fuck You (Dakota Johnson): A woman with an attitude that we get to learn her name afterwords. She has quite the backstory though.
• Miles Miller (Lewis Pullaman): The only employee that does everything from cleaning to appointing rooms and even be responsible for that bad. Guess what.....he is hiding something!
• Billy Lee (Chris Hemsworth): He isn't exactly a guest so i won't reveal a single thing about him!

The whole atmosphere is noir like and it really reminded me of a Tarantino film. All the guests that came in the hotel are having different purposes and a little bit after they chose their rooms the film starts to get divided into chapters. The chapters are divided by each room and not only we get to see a little bit of what they are doing in there and by their perspective what's happening, we also have some flashbacks about their background.This is very important and awesome as we are coming closer and closer to the characters and at the same time the pieces of the puzzle slowly come together. 

Spoilers Ahead Watch Out!

Soon enough we learn that Laramie Seymour Sullivan actually is an agent of the government or at least secret services and he has 2 missions. The first one is to learn if the rumors and info they have of the hotel are true and everything is true. Turns out the hotel has all the rooms wired and there is a secret door and stair that leads behind every room and the mirror in each room serves as a window that anything can be seen from the back. 

The management of the hotel had Miles Miller watch specific famous people, with who they had sex or what they were talking hidden in they rooms and filmed them in order ofc to use that info for negotiations or extortion.

I won't reveal much more but as we learn each backstory and reasons as to why they are there, sudden events bring them all together facing each other or forming alliances the film becomes more and more interesting!

Is It Worth Watching & Why?

If you like that kind of genre then it's worth. The set is great as they have managed to create a true 1950-1970 atmosphere. Just imagine that in the film most of the times it was raining, when i get out of the cinema i thought it was raining too :P

The acting is magnificent, all the actors are just perfect and they have some hidden gems than at the start of the film they don't seem much but at the end i bet you will love them the most! There is indeed mystery and you just wanna learn wtf if happening and what's the backstory each ones has. 

Also, there are some sudden shootings or generally sudden jump scares like that we are used to in thrillers. What's amazing though is that you actually never expect them. I had years to get surprised by a gunshot and i wasn't the only one, everyone in the cinema has the same reaction! (if this was a thriller with ghosts we would have shit our pants)

The only drawback was that a bunch of scenes were unnecessary and served no purpose, only to make me bored. Especially that disk got in my nerves. On the other hand maybe those unnecessary scenes made the jump scares so unexpected.  

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