Bad Times at the El Royale

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Bad Times at the El Royale

R

2018

2h 21m

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

75%

Tomatometer

260 Reviews

75%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

The El Royale is a 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.

Critics Consensus

Smart, stylish, and packed with solid performances, Bad Times at the El Royale delivers pure popcorn fun with the salty tang of social subtext.

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

03/03/2020

Perhaps the most insufferable Tarantino knockoff since the 90s.

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Manohla Dargis

New York Times

04/18/2019

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.

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Chris Stuckmann

ChrisStuckmann.com

11/20/2018

B+

An extremely well-directed film.

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Yehuda Siegel

Loud and Clear Reviews

11/18/2024

5/5

At its core, Bad Times is a film about duality. California, Nevada. Glamour, abandonment. The song, the food. The money, the film. The sins of the past, the consequences of the present.

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Ankit Ojha

Cinema Elite

07/09/2024

4.5/5

It’s almost like Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorcese doped up on Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock’s contained storytelling before picking up Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” to remix.

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Nyle Coleman

InSession Film

05/09/2024

B+

Jeff Bridges as Father Daniel Flynn was outstanding and will go down as one of my favorites from him.

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Ralph C

05/14/2021

Pacing was a bit irregular - lagged a third to halfway into it. Strong performances all around. Nostalgic (attention to detail is amazing) yet still felt fresh. Not for everyone - you know who you are.

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Marcel V

@vetter_typ Mar 24

Für mich persönlich total langweilig, absolute Zeitverschwendung. Mir hat leider gar nichts an dem Film gefallen.

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John Marius G

@J-Man Mar 17

A bit too close to The Hateful Eight? Næh, I’ll take it!

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Noel L

@RT15930389 Dec 21

What a great tale of strangers who meet at a location and everything starts to unravel

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michael l

@Stargazy Dec 6

I was engaged from the very start. A mystery unfolds as the people enter and check-in at the counter with Miles who had been in the back doing who knows what. Everyone is suspicious but that suspicion is kinda ruined by the backgrounds. One man is working for J. Edgar Hoover and reports to them that something is off at this hotel, but that goes nowhere. One woman is actually kidnapped, but that plot is quickly resolved as she goes from helpless hostage to Neo "I know kung-fu" and dear lord Chris Hemsworth as Billy Lee ruins this movie. He kills the pacing immediately as we get the most cliche torture scene there has ever been; one person dies to build suspense, another is threatened, someone hits the captor and starts a brawl, the day is saved by the guy you least expect. It's a bunch of cliches. We get some suspense, the hotel is watching you, filming you, but that goes nowhere, "reported to management, I don't know them" well there goes the movie I'd like to watch. Not bad, not good.

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Jack F

@MovieFan111 Nov 19

I enjoyed it. Took me a while to get around to it, but when I did, I appreciated the cool performances, especially Jeff Bridges. It's the kind of movie you could forget, but probably won't.

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Drew Goddard

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Bad Times at the El Royale: Trailer 2

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Bad Times at the El Royale: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

The El Royale is a 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.

Director: Drew Goddard
Producer: Jeremy Latcham, Drew Goddard
Screenwriter: Drew Goddard
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox, Goddard Textiles, TSG Entertainment
Rating: R (Language|Brief Nudity|Some Drug Content|Strong Violence)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 12, 2018, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 18, 2018
Box Office (Gross USA): $17.8M
Runtime: 2h 21m
Sound Mix: Dolby Atmos
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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