Hotel Artemis

Hotel Artemis is a dystopian thriller set in the not-too-distant future where Los Angeles is caught in the middle of a huge riot that is engulfing the entire city in chaos. Amidst the carnage, several bank robbers fresh from a disastrous heist go to seek shelter in Hotel Artemis which is a hospital that specialises in helping criminals get back on their feet but the riot soon causes a few troublesome guests to enter.

Released in 2018, I caught a few glimpses of this in adverts and went in knowing very little other than it having an intriguing cast that includes Jodie Forster, Dave Bautista, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella and Jeff Goldblum. The film begins with a strong first act as several bank robbers make their way through the riots to the hotel run by Jodie Foster, and everything was looking good for this in part thanks to the solid performances all around. Visually this also looks great with the hotel's period art design mixing with the chaos outside in the modern world to create a neat contrast. Overall, Hotel Artemis had the makings of a future cult classic but then things take a turn.

The set-up was great and there was a Quentin Tarantino vibe with the assortment of varied characters brought uncomfortably close together under one roof, and despite some cliched flashbacks with Foster's character, Hotel Artemis was looking like something I could recommend to friends. But it all comes crashingly to a halt in the final 20 minutes or so where the build-up is dropped in favour of some silly fight sequences that try to be Old Boy, and the film just ends in a abruptly unsatisfying way hoping a sequel might follow.

This had a lot of potential but unfortunately Drew Pierce's directorial debut didn't know how to bring about a conclusion, and for that reason Hotel Artemis is one I can't really recommend. Hopefully this isn't the last we'll see of this director as there were a lot of good ideas here which needed a few more drafts to make for something better than what we had here.