Early 1970s. Four strangers check in at the El Royale Hotel. The hotel is deserted, staffed by a single desk clerk. Some of the new guests' reasons for being there are less than innocent and some are not who they appear to be.
Set in contemporary Chicago, amid a time of turmoil, four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their dead husbands' criminal activities, take fate into their own hands, and conspire to forge a future on their own terms.
Director:
Steve McQueen
Stars:
Viola Davis,
Michelle Rodriguez,
Elizabeth Debicki
Ron Stallworth, an African American police officer from Colorado Springs, CO, successfully manages to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan branch with the help of a Jewish surrogate who eventually becomes its leader. Based on actual events.
Director:
Spike Lee
Stars:
John David Washington,
Adam Driver,
Laura Harrier
A look at the life of the astronaut, Neil Armstrong, and the legendary space mission that led him to become the first man to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when Grey, a self-identified technophobe, has his world turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant called Stem.
Director:
Leigh Whannell
Stars:
Logan Marshall-Green,
Melanie Vallejo,
Steve Danielsen
When the creator of a virtual reality called the OASIS dies, he makes a posthumous challenge to all OASIS users to find his Easter Egg, which will give the finder his fortune and control of his world.
The drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro.
Director:
Stefano Sollima
Stars:
Benicio Del Toro,
Josh Brolin,
Isabela Merced
Foul-mouthed mutant mercenary Wade Wilson (a.k.a. Deadpool), brings together a team of fellow mutant rogues to protect a young boy with supernatural abilities from the brutal, time-traveling cyborg Cable.
Director:
David Leitch
Stars:
Ryan Reynolds,
Josh Brolin,
Morena Baccarin
A group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves entangled in a real-life mystery when the shady brother of one of them is seemingly kidnapped by dangerous gangsters.
Directors:
John Francis Daley,
Jonathan Goldstein
Stars:
Jason Bateman,
Rachel McAdams,
Kyle Chandler
Six strangers, (Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny and Lewis Pullman) each with their own secrets, meet at the El Royale hotel of Lake Tahoe. Taking place over one night, alliances are made and secrets are revealed.
Tom Holland was offered the role of Miles Miller, but turned it down. See more »
Goofs
The bugs are too small for 1969 technology. So is the telescoping magnet in the tool kit. The foam pad for the tools is a type not developed until the 80s. See more »
Quotes
Miles Miller:
[to Father Flynn]
This is not a place for a priest, Father. You shouldn't be here.
Laramie Seymour Sullivan:
We might need to work on your sales pitch, son. "The El Royale: no place for a priest."
See more »
Crazy Credits
There are almost no opening credits. Only the film's title is shown after the first scene. See more »
An overlong, pretentious homage to Agatha Christie (Ten Little Indians) Steven King (The Shining) and the TV film Helter Skelter, "Bad Times at the El Royal" is a generally tedious, disappointing, and ultimately gory portrayal of "unlikable people acting badly," my personal worst form of cinema.
Individual performances by Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, and Jon Hammx are brilliant, and some production values are excellent, but many of the quick cuts between past, present, future, and contemporaneous events are ill-conceived and anachronisms abound. Why are 1960s songs on a Juke box played on 78rpm records? Why is an impoverished singer driving a mint-condition classic 1951 Studebaker in the 1970s?
Evidently filmed in British Columbia, "Bad Times" so far detached from objective reality as to be allegorical, if not incredible - requiring far too much suspension of disbelief and tolerance of gore to be enjoyable.
117 of 256 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
An overlong, pretentious homage to Agatha Christie (Ten Little Indians) Steven King (The Shining) and the TV film Helter Skelter, "Bad Times at the El Royal" is a generally tedious, disappointing, and ultimately gory portrayal of "unlikable people acting badly," my personal worst form of cinema. Individual performances by Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, and Jon Hammx are brilliant, and some production values are excellent, but many of the quick cuts between past, present, future, and contemporaneous events are ill-conceived and anachronisms abound. Why are 1960s songs on a Juke box played on 78rpm records? Why is an impoverished singer driving a mint-condition classic 1951 Studebaker in the 1970s? Evidently filmed in British Columbia, "Bad Times" so far detached from objective reality as to be allegorical, if not incredible - requiring far too much suspension of disbelief and tolerance of gore to be enjoyable.