Bad Times at the El Royale

Name: Bad Times at the El Royale
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Crime
Released: October 12, 2018
Duration: 141 min
Rating: 60
Cast: Alvina August, Bethany Brown, Cailee Spaeny, Chris Hemsworth, Cynthia Erivo

2018

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 275 Ratings

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7.2

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7.2	Your Score
7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 275 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox | Release Date: October 12, 2018 | R

Starring: Alvina August, Bethany Brown, Cailee Spaeny, Chris Hemsworth, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jeff Bridges, Jim O'Heir, Jon Hamm, Jonathan Whitesell, Katharine Isabelle, Lewis Pullman, Manny Jacinto, Mark O'Brien, Nick Offerman, Sarah Smyth, Shea Whigham, Xavier Dolan

Summary: 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.

Director: Drew Goddard

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Crime

Rating: R

Runtime: 141 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Bobby LePire

Oct 20, 2018

Bad Times At The El Royale is creepy and mysterious in all the right ways. The tension builds as the non-sequential story allows the pieces to fall into place in mesmerizing fashion. Read full review

David Ehrlich

Sep 27, 2018

The more that Goddard upends our assumptions about who’s good, who’s bad, and who’s going to live through the night, the more we realize that we’re rooting for all of these fucked-up people to get right with the world. It’s massively didactic, but in a way that encourages us to dwell on how we feel about these characters, and how malleable those feelings are. Read full review

Leah Greenblatt

Oct 10, 2018

It’s British stage actress Erivo who feels like the real star. Her steely charisma and gorgeous powerhouse of a voice (Goddard takes every plausible opportunity to let her loose on a classic 1960s songbook; can you blame him?) is what gives the movie not just a different kind of heroine, but a heart. Read full review

Nick Vadala

Oct 10, 2018

Goddard provides ample space for his star-studded cast to play, often to great effect, thanks mostly to lesser-known stars like Erivo and Pullman. The production design is similarly engrossing, with the El Royale's endless corridors and secrets making it as much a character in the movie as any of its human players. Read full review

Manohla Dargis

Oct 11, 2018

Goddard keeps everything smoothly, ebbing and flowing as the characters separate and join together, but at some point during this logy 2-hour-and-21-minute exercise you want something more substantial than even Hemsworth’s admittedly mesmerizing snaky hips. Read full review

Richard Lawson

Oct 13, 2018

I remain as curious as ever to see what Goddard does next. But this film, for all its canny presentation, is a mishmash of compelling narrative premises clumsily fused together. It manages to be both overwrought and under-developed, disappointing less for what it is than for what it could have been. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Oct 1, 2018

Ponderously telling some parts of its sketch-of-a-story from multiple points of view, it’s an excruciating exercise in self-indulgence, packed with flashbacks and those big speeches/big scenes that draw names like Oscar winner Jeff Bridges, Dakota Johnson and Jon Hamm to its cast. It adds up to nothing more than two hours and 21 minutes of tedium, with the odd spasm of violence, back-story or musical interlude. Read full review

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User Reviews

Fb29

Oct 15, 2018

I'll echo another reviewer, this is a crafted movie. The acting is superb. Great cinematography. The plot moves. What a treat that Cynthia Erivo sings in the movie, she has to be the best voice on earth right now. The soundtrack for this movie was outstanding. I plan to see it again inI'll echo another reviewer, this is a crafted movie. The acting is superb. Great cinematography. The plot moves. What a treat that Cynthia Erivo sings in the movie, she has to be the best voice on earth right now. The soundtrack for this movie was outstanding. I plan to see it again in theaters, partly for the soundtrack and that Jon Hamm monologue, but mostly to be able to enjoy the movie while also remembering to breathe.… Expand

6 of 10 users found this helpful64

Dizzy_69

Jan 2, 2020

Make the effort, it's definitely worth the watch.
Christopher Hemsworth even puts in a decent performance.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

JDX_Awesome

Oct 22, 2018

I’ve heard people call this movie one with inspiration from Tarantino, with which I completely agree. That’s probably why I like it so much, I’m a huge Tarantino fan. It reminds most of probably ‘Pulp Fiction’ if the general idea was taken even further then it that movie. I’m not saying thisI’ve heard people call this movie one with inspiration from Tarantino, with which I completely agree. That’s probably why I like it so much, I’m a huge Tarantino fan. It reminds most of probably ‘Pulp Fiction’ if the general idea was taken even further then it that movie. I’m not saying this movie is better than ‘Pulp Fiction’, by the way, I’m saying it’s the same sort of idea that ‘Pulp Fiction’ toyed with. There are a lot more parallels between this movie a Tarantino movie. Great characters, great visuals, great dialogue, a ton of unnecessary violence, and the movie is even split into chapters, but sadly, I don’t think that aspect was executed very well. Usually, when a movie is split into chapters, it focuses on one character, one storyline, or just one thing in each. In this movie, it feels like they just put the title card into there for no real reason for a few of them. It works for the chapters starring Jon Hamm’s character (forgot the name), Miles, and Billy Lee. Otherwise, not really. I heard a few people complain that the plot doesn’t move fast enough because they keep showing the same scene over and over again just from different perspectives. I noticed that, and I see that it’s a big flaw of the movie, but it didn’t really distract me or ruin my enjoyment in any way. All the acting was really good except for Dakota Johnson. I personally don’t think she’s a great actress in general, and she wasn’t great in this movie. The scenery and visuals were great, I loved that they show what time it is through almost exclusively visuals and music. It’s very interesting. I liked pretty much everything. In the end, a lot of things work, but some things feel out of place or just done poorly. Despite that fact, I still highly recommend this movie.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

HTGamer

Oct 26, 2018

"Bad Times at the El Royale" is a neo-noir thriller movie set in the late '60s/early '70s. It's the kind of movie where several characters are by chance present in the same place, right when something happens that entails all of them.

This movie's got great acting and production values, a"Bad Times at the El Royale" is a neo-noir thriller movie set in the late '60s/early '70s. It's the kind of movie where several characters are by chance present in the same place, right when something happens that entails all of them.

This movie's got great acting and production values, a nice soundtrack of the '60s, and each major character has a touching backstory. Unfortunately the main plot (despite the twists and turns) is hardly original. You have already seen this kind of movie a dozen times before. And this is what makes this movie just good, but not great.

"Bad Times at the El Royale" is enjoyable for what it is, but it's not memorable either. If you want a more modern approach to this classic thriller genre, you'd better watch movies such as Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight".… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

The3AcademySins

Jun 20, 2019

A highly stylized heist/thriller, Bad Times At The El Royale is a movie that feels familiar, but remains entertaining and fresh all the same. The cinematography is very impressive, as is the direction. There is not a weak link in the cast, and Cynthia Erivo shines in particular. The scriptA highly stylized heist/thriller, Bad Times At The El Royale is a movie that feels familiar, but remains entertaining and fresh all the same. The cinematography is very impressive, as is the direction. There is not a weak link in the cast, and Cynthia Erivo shines in particular. The script is definitely the weak part of this movie. It's definitely heavily influenced by Quentin Tarantino, but the consistency is not there. The first act is incredible, the second act is boring, and the final act is predictable. However, this is a fun Saturday night thriller.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

thiele

Oct 23, 2018

Bad Time at the El Royale is trying to be a Tarantino film. There, I said it, the one thing that was on my mind the entire length of the film. Imagine "The Hateful Eight" but instead of a cold cabin in the middle of a snowstorm and eight strangers with something to hide, imagine a cold motelBad Time at the El Royale is trying to be a Tarantino film. There, I said it, the one thing that was on my mind the entire length of the film. Imagine "The Hateful Eight" but instead of a cold cabin in the middle of a snowstorm and eight strangers with something to hide, imagine a cold motel in the middle of a thunderstorm and 5 strangers with something to hide.... wow it really is just "The Hateful Eight" in another era. But don't let that stop you watching the film. While it tries to be a Tarantino film, it lacks dialogue that flows, it chooses the wrong time to change the mood, and it has pacing issues especially in the final two acts of the film. While the dialogue isn't great, at times I could see that the actors were trying their best to make the most out of it. There really isn't a main character, with the story jumping perspective throughout the film. This at times is done really well, with the first two acts being non-linear (another Tarantino trait) however, in the final act, in the last 30 minutes of the film, a character is given more backstory which seems to come out of nowhere and feels like it's been thrown into the story to make another plot point. I could rant about it all day, but I'll leave it because I'll be getting into spoilers. So overall the characters have some interesting backstory, and all have something to hide or be ashamed of. Cynthia Erivo is the stand out for me. Also Chris Hemsworth's antagonist reminded me of Joseph Seed (Far Cry 5) with a lot more crazy in him. I think he was an interesting character but, I wish was used and developed more. But not all is bad, the music, was used tremendously throughout most of the film. The only negative was that at times I felt the music didn't fit the scene but often the camera work would pull me back in. Because visually the film is amazing, the cinematography was on point, starting with symmetrical framing and ending with a noir film look and feel while the lighting starts neutral it again takes on a film noir look. Sadly, the visuals don't save the film it from its plot and structure. With many plot point going unsolved or just forgotten, and many instances where the pacing changes because they want to add another subplot to the already congested main story. Yet, I enjoyed watching it but because it kept going and going, I slowly lost interest. (sorry to bring it back to the plot, I really didn't enjoy the structure of the film.) I still think it's worth a watch. It has the body of a Tarantino film, making it enjoyable even if it's long. But it doesn't have the soul of a Tarantino film. TL; DR: The weak structure of the film and the not so great dialogue would pull me out, but I'd find myself going "wow that looks cool" So well done Drew Goddard.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

MaxPayneIsGod

Feb 13, 2019

Absolute trash.
How they could butcher a movie this badly with this cast is beyond me.
I knew nothing about this movie before I watched it. It is 101 lesson on how to waste talent. Its a poor man's Hateful Eight or Identity. Bad Times is horrifically bad and a huge waste of the viewersAbsolute trash.
How they could butcher a movie this badly with this cast is beyond me.
I knew nothing about this movie before I watched it.
It is 101 lesson on how to waste talent.
Its a poor man's Hateful Eight or Identity.
Bad Times is horrifically bad and a huge waste of the viewers time.
I spent the whole movie waiting for something good to happen.
Hated it, absolutely hated it.… Expand

2 of 7 users found this helpful25

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47	#47 Most Discussed Movie of 2018
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