Movie review: Hotel Artemis
There is so much potential here.
Hotel Artemis boasts a star-studded line-up, interesting characters and an original sci-fi-thriller story by writer-director Drew Pearce, who also worked on Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.
However, he faces housekeeping issues running his directorial debut.
There is Jodie Foster's frumpy Nurse, who runs a tight ship in the fortress-like hospital. There is Dave Bautista's Everest, her loyal bouncer/orderly. Together, they fill up bullet holes, seal up knife wounds, replace corneas and do liver transplants for baddies who can pay her private fees.
The plot unfolds over a night revolving around her code-named guests - Sterling K. Brown's bank robber Waikiki, Sofia Boutella's French assassin Nice, and Charlie Day's arms dealer Acapulco.
Each has a personal link to the Wolf King (Jeff Goldblum), the kingpin of Los Angeles' underworld. The plot gets convoluted when Wolf King checks in, causing mayhem.
Hotel Artemis tries to give equal play to each character but apart from Nurse, Waikiki and Nice get most of the screen time.
He may not have much time on-screen, but Goldblum always steals the scene.
The same can be said for Foster, in her first major role in five years. Underneath all that bad ageing make-up, her eyes still sparkle as she, like Nurse, holds the fort gallantly.
How Nurse became the custodian of Hotel Artemis is sad and can be better explored, especially her backstory with the Wolf King.
But at that point, violence takes precedence over story.
And yes, expect lots of violence, particularly in the final act.
It is always a spectacle to see Boutella execute her slick fight moves, but someone should advise her against being typecast.
Rating: 2.5 ticks
MOVIE: Hotel Artemis
STARRING: Jodie Foster, Sofia Boutella, Dave Bautista, Sterling K. Brown, Zachary Quinto, Jeff Goldblum
DIRECTOR: Drew Pearce
THE SKINNY: Nurse (Foster) runs a tight ship in the members-only medical facility for criminals. However, when mob boss Wolf King (Goldblum) turns up for emergency treatment, things start to spin out of control.
RATING: NC16
Movie reviews: Gotti, Disobedience
GOTTI (M18)
This biopic languished in development hell for seven years - and it shows.
John Travolta stars as John Gotti, head of the Gambino mobster family, a set-up that defies its apparent potential. Such a story should almost write itself, with its larger-than-life protagonist.
Instead, what ensues is a confused set of vignettes that lack narrative thrust, bookended by two cheesy monologues that break the fourth wall.
The opening 20 minutes of the crime drama, which infamously holds an approval rating of 0 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, are woefully incoherent.
Within it, we track three Gottis (not including monologue Gotti). There is 70s Gotti in his early career, a mid-career Gotti trusting the wrong person and a cancer patient defending his blinkered machismo in jail to a son (Spencer Lofranco) seeking to walk away from mobster life.
I still don't know what director Kevin Connolly intends here - to humanise Gotti as a man powerless in the face of fate, depict the redemption of his son or chart the reign of the New York mob.
All three are intriguing ideas, but none is addressed with any nuance. - TAY HONG YI Rating : 1 tick
DISOBEDIENCE (R21)
This drama delivers a heart-tugging portrait of a secret relationship between two childhood friends starring standout actresses Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz.
It also scrutinises the fine line between finding an orthodox religious view of one's sexual orientation and the price of choosing one's path.
After shunning her strict tight-knit Jewish community in North London, Ronit (Weisz) moves to New York to pursue a career as a photographer. She later returns to her hometown after learning about the death of her estranged father, a rabbi.
Her former lover Esti (McAdams) and her husband (Alessandro Nivola), also a rabbi, let Ronit stay in their home in the interim, but this is a recipe for disaster as the women rekindle their passion and he finds out about his wife's infidelity.
Disobedience may come across as deliberately scandalous, yet you will feel Esti's agony for having suppressed her identity all the while. - TATIANA MOHAMAD ROSLI Rating : 3.5 ticks
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