Hypnotic

Narcoleptic... William Fichtner back again as a prince of evil, reminiscent of Drive Angry, Benny looks like J-Lo just banned him from going to a Red Sox game, and somewhere from the moment Nolan started playing with trains in the sky, it lost its originality, functionality, and all my interest. When Rodriguez cut off the recycled joke about the bet and the piss-drunk bartender, I thought it was time for some kind of autobiography recapping his career. The title could be From Dawn Till Dusk. (23.06.2023)

Robert Rodriguez should have made another Alita rather than this. At the beginning, the film is interesting with its hypnosis theme, but somewhere in the middle it gets so overwrought that I stopped caring. Affleck isn't very expressive, and even though the film is only 90 minutes long, I found the plot quite slow, and when I'm already looking at 60 minutes to see when the end will be, it's just not a good look. The ending does bring an interesting twist, but it just wasn't to my taste. It didn't quite pull me in as much as I would have liked. 50% (15.06.2023)

Surprise!! Hypnotic is a film of many faces. On the one hand, it’s not the best Rodríguez, on the other, definitely not the dud that the reviews suggested. The script is by no means polished in detail, but the film is watchable and this whole concept of "hypnotics" had me engrossed from the beginning with its originality and I was very eager to see where the film would go. Anyway, the film is more or less a classic thriller template, but it certainly can't be denied its ability to shock and the three twists it pulled during the second part blew me away. All in all, a surprisingly entertaining mystery-thriller that boasts a very refreshing idea and is only undermined by a screenplay that is not complete enough for a better rating, it simply can't bring this concept to maximum perfection in the field of 90 minutes, and if it had an extra 60 minutes, aimed higher and took the story to a bigger scale, it could have been the perfect cinematic blockbuster mixing Tenet, Shutter Island and Inception, something that hasn't been around for a while. Objectively average, but for my part I'm actually satisfied and had enough fun during the screening that I'm happy to throw in that extra star. (19.05.2023)

[spoiler alert] A faithful recollection of Willis' straight-to-DVD B movies from the last twenty years, which had to feel bizarrely magical in theaters. Personally, I have a weakness for such films, but unfortunately, Hypnotic stumbled upon the fact that in the end, it completely forgot to demolish cars and hit people with a baseball bat from a motorcycle, and instead tries to outsmart the audience by suggesting that everything was actually a "simulation inside a simulation inside another big simulation". Rodriguez claims that he wrote the script for this back in 2002, and I believe every word of it, however, it seems that from a creative perspective, there may be quite a problem when you, as a filmmaking team, are only surrounded by your extensive family, which apparently prevents you from learning that there are other films besides your own. It is true, however, that for the palpable discomfort of Ben Affleck, who is clearly trying to escape from this film, it's quite worth it. (10.08.2023)

A B-grade noir that turns into a total mindfuck. Yeah, it’s bollocks, but very entertaining bollocks, where something is constantly going on. Made from the heart and featuring a well-fitting Affleck in the lead role – he really found himself in the role of a stoic tough guy, ruined by life and pissed off at everyone. It surprised me a bit, so I’m giving it a slightly higher rating. (02.06.2023)