Hypnotic

An entirely uproarious 90 minutes at the cinema which asks nothing more of its audience than that they keep their incredulity suspended for just a few seconds longer and keep enjoying the ride.

Hypnotic isn’t just refreshingly straightforward for Rodriguez, but for Ben Affleck too.

Hypnotic may not be clever or energetic enough to keep your mind from wandering, but it is charming in its own stumbling way.

Affleck is at his best playing wisecracking supporting roles (like in the recent Air, which Affleck also directed) and at his worst as an action hero. He sleepwalks his way through Hypnotic, doing little to rouse the audience from its own slumber while failing to generate any sparks with his co-star, Alice Braga.

All of this is very silly, but there's nothing wrong with that! In fact, Hypnotic would be a lot better off if it learned to lean into that silliness. Instead, Rodriguez keeps everything very dour, and while he injects some life here and there via action beats (the bank robbery scene is quite well-staged, as are several chase sequences), the filmmaker can never really get "Hypnotic" working.

A grumpy Ben Affleck can’t save this confused thriller that has as many twists as a trepanning drill, and is about as likely to leave you feeling lobotomised.

Sadly, the film is a tedious and erratically cut caper, whose shape-shifting story feels like an uneven and over-plotted rehash of various recognizable films that we’ve seen before.

I'm just blowen away with the twists and turns of this film, after the credits, there was a short clip that made yet another surprising ending. Make sure to stay til the end.

O filme é bem morno, me deixou levemente entediado várias vezes até finalmente ter um plotwist que me fez repensar várias cenas. Fica mais interessante no final, mas é **** demais pra recuperar o interesse inteiramente. Só dá pra levar o filme mais a sério quando aceitamos o nível de poderes exagerados de hipnose proposto na história, oq nos faz pensar oq é real ou imaginação. Pior que na mão do Christopher Nolan esse filme teria chances.

(Mauro Lanari) Rodriguez echoes "Inception" and "The Matrix" with a matryoshka script and a MKULTRA-kind sci-fi. He has fun and enjoys us by getting rid of the haughty authorial arrogance of the Nolans and Wachowskis, who consider themselves able to say something new about everything (time, existence, simulacra), and indulges himself with visual constructions that not even the respective Architects of the others two films. "Sidelined by the Hollywood mainstream which has instead moved in other, not necessarily better, directions" (Raffaele Meale), he realizes the B-movie version of "Abre los ojos" (Amenábar '97), "Trance" (Boyle 2013 ), etc., also alien to his companion Tarantino or to graphic novels: an intriguing case of when "less is more".

It was an ok film. Felt more like a streaming film. It was a cool concept on paper but horribly executed. And it just gets wack in the 3rd act, and that final monologue from Affleck was so forced and horribly written. Tons of plot holes. I love Robert Rodriguez so much, Sin City, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Planet Terror. But this film was disappointing. I didn't think this film was awful. But it didn't feel like Rodriguez, I know. Rodriguez tried to make Inception, but the story and acting were not that great (I blame the director on this one). Just cheesy. So many twists that it was over-complicated compared to the plot.

Prepare to be utterly flabbergasted by the fact that 'Hypnotic' managed to convince multiple individuals that it was a brilliant concept. Clearly, the amount of money spent on this disaster could have been put to much better use, like actually making a difference in the lives of those less fortunate. I can only assume that Ben Affleck found himself in dire straits, desperately in need of a hefty paycheck, or perhaps Robert Rodriguez decided to play a little prank on his unsuspecting audience. Because, really, what better way to show appreciation for your fans than to serve them a mishmash of stolen ideas from countless other movies? In fact, I highly recommend spending your time watching mind-numbing TikTok videos instead - they're bound to bring you more joy. Spare a thought for the poor actors who naively thought they were embarking on a project with the esteemed Mr. Affleck, only to find themselves trapped in this nonsensical and woefully misguided cinematic disaster.