Hotel Artemis

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In near future Los Angeles, the Hotel Artemis acts a hotel and a hospital simultaneously for criminals and lawbreakers. Trying to describe the plot of this film is difficult. In all honesty, the movie’s plot feels pretty all over the place. There isn’t really a major driving force to this movie. A group of bank robbers rob a bank. Things go wrong, and they check into the hotel. One of them steals a pen that turns out to be a transportation conduit for a mob boss called the Wolf King (played by Jeff Goldblum). An assassin named Nice (played by Sofia Boutella) is in the hotel with the intention of killing the Wolf King. The Wolf King himself arrives at the hotel to clean get an injury of his own cleaned up. The hotel is run by a woman called Thomas (played by Jodie Foster) who is trying to keep things under control, especially as they spiral into chaos. Okay people, this is something of a moment of truth situation. I loved this movie. It’s exactly the kind of action movie I tend to enjoy. This is a violent, R-rated, guilty pleasure throwback, and I ate up every second of it. I actually found almost all of the characters interesting (though I wish there was a clear big bad for the film). The performances were all really solid as well. My personal favorites were those of Jodie Foster, Sofia Boutella, Dave Bautista, and Jeff Goldblum. Foster’s character has the most understandable backstory. She is a woman who has pain and suffering in her past, something you can kind of see through her expressions, and her interactions with other people. Sofia Boutella and Dave Baustista are two rising action stars that I personally love watching when they are in movies. Goldblum isn’t in the movie nearly enough, especially because he is so good at playing this remorseless asshole. The man has so much charm and charisma in brief time onscreen that I just wanted more of him. Both of them really get their moments to shine (both from an action standpoint and an acting one). The movie is pretty short (clocking in at around an hour and a half). But, more than that, it actually manages to keep up a good, quick pace. This is helpful because the movie has its share of slower moments, but I was interested the whole time. Overall, some of the execution in Hotel Artemis might have been a little bit clunky, but the full experience was just a blast. 

8 / 10