Bad Times at the El Royale Review

Bad Times at the El Royale is a great time. If you haven’t seen the trailer, it doesn’t give much away, though rewatching it afterward I could see how much it hinted at.

Jon Hamm’s character is fantastic. Watching him figure out what’s really going on at the El Royale and discover the rooms being spied on is a highlight. One of the best moments is shown from three different angles, from three characters’ points of view, and it’s shot wonderfully.

The whole movie felt like a Quentin Tarantino film in how it flows and reveals each character’s backstory one at a time, so it was refreshing to learn it’s from Drew Goddard. Chris Hemsworth is a charismatic surprise, since the trailers held back how much of a role he’d play, and his scene running the game of red or black looks amazing.

The only real downside is that it all takes place in one night, so the movie has to backtrack a lot to fit in everyone’s backstory. And Miles gets less backstory than everyone else, so his big moments late in the movie don’t land as well as they could.

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Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) Cast and Details

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) is directed by Drew Goddard and stars Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm and Cailee Spaeny. It runs 141 minutes and is rated R. You can look up the full cast and crew on IMDb. You might also like my Venom review.