Hypnotic
Regal Cinema - Hazleton, PA
The latest film from director Robert Rodriguez is premiering in theaters nationwide this weekend, but we were lucky enough to get an advance screening on the first of the month as a part of Regal Cinema's Mystery Movie Monday.
If you have a Regal in your area, I can't recommend this highly enough. My recommendation is to stay away from the prediction threads on Twitter and Reddit. To their credit, the general consensus on what the next mystery movie is usually ends up being right, but I think you're really cheating yourself out of a unique experience if you try to find out what it is. How many opportunities are you going to have to go into a theater with no expectations at all and see a movie that practically no one has ever seen before? It could be a genre that you really enjoy, or it might be something that you have almost no exposure to. Not knowing is part of the fun. Just show up, and for five bucks (or $7 if you want popcorn and a soda), and let the cast and crew tell you a story.
Hypnotic is an action movie with elements of science fiction, crime, mystery, psychological thriller. This combination of elements has been brought together quite a few times over the past two decades to the point where it really could be considered a genre onto itself. The first example that I can think of is Memento, but this sub-genre hit is stride with the release of Inception and Shutter Island.
Hypnotic has a lot of twists and turns that all come together in the end. I don't think it's quite as challenging as Shutter Island, but I think that has a lot to do with Hypnotic having a much snappier run time (89 minutes compared to 139 minutes), and the fact that I've had more exposure to this type of film in 2023 than I had in 2010. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this movie to anybody. It's shot well, it tells a good story, and Ben Affleck does a great job in the lead role. Stick around for the bonus scene in the credits that sets up a potential sequel.
