Bad Times At The El Royale

Synopsis: 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, a soul singer, a traveling salesman, two sisters, the manager and the mysterious Billy Lee -- converge on a fateful night for one last shot at redemption before everything goes wrong.

Movie Review:

"Bad Times at the El Royale" is a noir mystery thriller directed by Drew Goddard and stars Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, John Hamm, Dakota Johnson, and Chris Hemsworth. This movie is an excellent, well-acted movie with some surprising twists along the way that shocked me and that I didn’t see coming. This movie finds 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 night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption before everything goes to hell. I was looking forward to this movie for a long time and it didn’t disappoint. The cast is incredible…John Hamm is amazing and this is probably his best role since "Baby Driver"; Dakota Johnson excels as a talented actress when she chooses the right role (not "Fifty Shades of Grey") and she picked the right role this time around, she was incredible; Chris Hemsworth plays Billy Lee, the main villain of the film, and he was extremely creepy and intimidating as a cult leader who captures our main characters near the end of the film, even though he has maybe about 20 minutes of screen time. The actors who stole the entire movie for me have to be Jeff Bridges who plays Father Daniel Flynn, and Cynthia Erivo who plays Darlene Sweet. Both characters are hiding something from their past and I connected with them from the start of this move to the end. What this movie does well is that each act is about a certain character, and then unravels the mystery of why the characters all here at this hotel in such a clever way that the audience doesn't see the twists coming — I was riveted to the screen watching every detail. This is Drew Goddard’s second movie he has directed since "The Cabin in the Woods" and I felt that he is a better writer than a director because some of the editing seemed a little messy and the pacing of the movie felt off at times. "The Bad Times at the El Royale" is a brilliant thriller full of suspense and intrigue and a talented cast of actors. I am giving this film a 4 out of 5 starts.

Director: Drew Goddard

Cast:Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, John Hamm, Dakota Johnson, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman, and Chris Hemsworth

Runtime: 140 minutes