Written and directed by Drew Goddard
Starring Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Jeff Bridges, Chris Hemsworth, the kitchen sink
Running time: 2 hours and 21 minutes
MPAA rating: R for strong violence, language, some drug content and brief nudity

by Sandy DeVito

At some point around the halfway mark of Bad Times at the El Royale I disconnected with it pretty abruptly. Is it because I had a super long day at work and then had to rush to eat dinner before the screener and I drank a yerba mate really fast and chased it with two glasses of wine (on the back of yerba mate cans it reads "do not mix with alcohol" hahahaha)? Or is it because the Chris Hemsworth character shows up about halfway through and his presence in the film just makes no fucking sense in the context of what's been going on so far? I mean, you can hamfistedly shove any kind of character into any kind of narrative, sure, and pretend that it works somehow from sheer personal desire to have said character in your story, but that doesn't mean it works. The first half of this movie I was really enjoying (despite having to pee almost immediately and being really tired, as I was saying, which in a way is the truest litmus test for how much you're enjoying something if you're willing to stay awake and hold your pee to keep watching it). But the second half feels unfinished, and I got sort of fatigued and bored of it.