Hotel Artemis (2018)

I rented this movie from RedBox.

I actually really enjoyed this movie! It was well written mostly and had engaging characters.
At first it seemed to be billed as an action film... However there actually isn't very much action in the movie except in the opening scene and towards the end. Its more a character drama, but it's great!

The acting is well done and the idea of a John Wick style hospital for criminals is a cool one, though it does seem they coped the hit man hotel idea from John Wick as a hospital for this film.

My only issues with the film, and why I'm giving it a lesser rating than full, is all the damn sub plots that are thrown in there that don't really lend to much. It's pretty well done, but in the end it's like. What was the point? And the redemption arch for the Nice towards the end just felt so out of place for her and not earned. Perhaps if we had seen more of her history and past with Waikiki, it could have felt earned. But as it is, it just felt forced.

Mistake Status: I struggled to find even the one that I did. I was really into this film and often forgot to look for mistakes, which is a good thing! I'll have own this movie some time and really dive into it again. Even the mistakes on IMDb seem like they aren't really mistakes.

Quantom X ★

We're off to a great start, a robbery gone wrong, a pretty solid dynamic with litigious bandits, which effortlessly introduces a close but already dystopian future with a solid and believable aesthetic and one awesome concept, a location that could and should be the unsung real protagonist. We have rules, and a handful (not too many, perfect number) of diverse characters are introduced in this controlled, claustrophobic environment. Plot lines begin to develop, different motivations for these characters, and some seem to have intertwining pasts. Academy winning actress Jodie Foster hams it up just perfectly as the custodian and living engine of this place, and like a ticking time bomb one more Oscar winnner and fan favourite Jeff Goldblum is scheduled to make his appearance in what anticipates to be a great season finale for this series which...Hm, what? I am not halfway through the pilot of a miniseries, but this is a 90 minutes movie? Well...damn, I hope all these plotlines combine together at the end in one mosaic which... Oh no.

Seriously, I could see this setup work as a series with a big part of character study inside the hotel leading to an assassination/heist plot unfolding slowly, and then to a big climactic finale with a bit of an Assault on Precinct 13 vibe. It ended up with characters woefully underdeveloped, rushing through a zillion plotlines (at least 2-3 per character!) who went absolutely nowhere for the most time. The cinematography was depressingly dark, the limited action was your bog Hollywood cutfest, and it was generally such a waste of a super-promising concept. I felt thoroughly robbed! Jodies Foster was flawless and so was Goldblum, making good use of the limited screentime (boy, the guy does not want to work or decomposes in open air after 5 minutes, because it seems like his roles lately have been nothing but extended cameos) blending his usual suave histrionics with sinister glimpses of a crimine lord. Sterling K. Brown was very solid and believable as a lead, Batista was written in a disappointing way since he was basically Drax (down to the bit when he can't understand figures of speech), but stil wasn't bad. Can't say much about the rest of the cast, because they were not able to rise past their writing.

As you may have guessed, I found this movie really disappointing - and I did not come in with any expectation.

Sammo ★