Here are review links for this film submitted by our members:
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: [Godard’s] assembled a strong cast where the lesser known actors make the strongest impressions, but his screenplay leans too heavily on coincidence, multiple nefarious back stories converging in a free-for-all climax.
- Karl Delossantos @ Smash Cut Reviews
- Excerpt: Bad Times at the El Royale is a thrilling, character-driven neo-noir homage that will keep you guessing from beginning to end.
- Herman Dhaliwal @ Cinema Sanctum
- Excerpt: Yes, it’s super indulgent, too knowingly clever, and it’s full of digressions, but it knows how to keep things fun and engaging, even at its darkest moments. Drew Goddard cements himself as a force to be reckoned with.
- Vadim Grigoriev @ kinoblog.com [Ukrainian]
- Courtney Howard @ FreshFiction.tv
- Excerpt: While its subtle smarts make certain sequences sing, others wind up outstaying their welcome
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: A self-indulgent, faux-woke mashup of noir crime, black comedy, and Tarantino-esque ultraviolence. Some great performances, including a spectacular feature debut from Cynthia Erivo; shame they’re so wasted.
- [New] | Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: “Bad Times at the El Royale” crackles and pops as an audaciously sprawling genre exercise, a revolving door of juggled tones and a looking-glass world that keeps changing and surprising.
- Wesley Lovell @ “Bad Times at the El Royale” looks to be trying to spark new life into the genre, but with seemingly little success.
- Alan Mattli @ Maximum Cinema [German]
- Excerpt: Goddard may not quite find closure to his intriguing deconstruction of the moder gangster movie. But what he does deliver is entertainment, suspense, and beautiful visuals.
- Brent McKnight @ The Last Thing I See
- Excerpt: Far too long, far too slow, and not nearly as engaging or clever as it wants to be, Bad Times as the El Royale fails. It’s admittedly an intriguing failure, and an ambitious one to boot—there’s obviously quite a bit to talk about—but in the end, it’s a misaimed slog I didn’t enjoy watching.
- Jared Mobarak @ JaredMobarak.com
- Excerpt: Goddard is lucky the period aesthetic and caricatured figures are enough to win us over because the two-dimensional anti-whodunit at its core is lacking. It’s style over substance, but the ratio still works.
- Aaron Neuwirth @ We Live Entertainment
- Excerpt: It’s unfortunate that Bad Times at the El Royale feels like we’re just waiting in the lobby following an exciting first hour that keeps us traveling down a lost highway, but the film is still colorful enough to warrant checking in.
- Diego Salgado @ Guía del Ocio [Spanish]
- Amir Siregar @ Amir at the Movies [Indonesian]
- Excerpt: Drew Goddard might stretched it a bit too long but surely no bad times found at ‘Bad Times at the El Royale.’
