Bad Times At The El Royale (4K UHD Blu-ray Review)

Bad Times At The El Royale was one of those movies that evaded me during its theatrical run in 2018.  Try as I might there was never a good time to check it out.  I regret not doing so having seen the film on many Top 10 lists as of late, but like always in life I digress.  When it was initially announced for a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release I took solace in the fact knowing I was going to experience Bad Times At The El Royale for the first time in its finest presentation possible.  I mean what more can you ask for, right?  So here we are.  It’s the beginning of 2019 and with it we have on our first 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray releases, Bad Times At The El Royale on the format of choice here.  Let’s take a closer look below at not only how everything looks and sounds on this 4K disc, but also how it was the first time around for me.  Here’s to me for popping my Bad Times At The El Royale cherry!

Film

Bad Times At The El Royale first premiered right here in Austin, TX at Fantastic Fest this past September.  While I never have attended this festival it’s high on my Austin bucket list, which is relatively short.  Drew Goddard takes on a trifecta of duties here from writing the film, producing it and also directing.  The Neo-noir thriller stars Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm, Cailee Spaeny, Lewis Pullman, Nick Offerman and Chris Hemsworth. Bad Times At The El Royale takes place in the year 1969.  It follows a small group of diverse strangers and their dark secrets that suddenly arrive upon a desolate hotel named the El Royale, which just happens to be located on the California-Nevada border.  That location sounds like heaven to me given my Texas situation, but I digress.

Bad Times At The El Royale only went on to gross over $31 million worldwide against a reported $32 million dollar budget.  It received generally positive reviews from critics, with both praise for its acting and Goddard’s story/direction.  Some also called it the best Quentin Tarantino (QT) movie of 2018 not be QT.  Ha!  With that being said they also criticized the film’s 141-minute runtime and pacing.  Truth be told though the movie to me didn’t feel that bloated.  As masterful as QT is there are some films that do have bloated runtimes despite my love for them.  I can admit that.  However, Bad Times At The El Royale really didn’t feel long to me at all.  I was sleepy as can be when I put it on, but the story and shocking moments kept me invested throughout and before I knew it was over.  And best of all…I loved it!

So there’s good and then there’s some bad with Bad Times At The El Royale.  The good is obviously the QT aspects to it all whether its intertwining stories, witty extended scenes of dialogue or holy hell shocking deaths out of nowhere.  The bad is not really terrible, but there are some non-consequential findings, plot devices and stories told, which do little to tie into the overall narrative and really just extend the runtime.  However, all is forgiving because despite the bad I had a “good” time with Bad Times At The El Royale.  The vibe, scenery, performances, soundtrack and the shocks out of nowhere kept me coming back for more.  Plus in the end it’s really a cool tale about redemption so there’s that too.

While I won’t go too much into the plot of the film as to not reveal any secrets there is a reason some of the characters are at the El Royale.  Others just meet up there by fate.  However, it is revealed the hotel has a dark past to itself.  It just so happens one fateful night everything literally goes to hell and all dirty secrets are ultimately exposed.  You couldn’t have pulled this off in my opinion without the film’s musical selections, richly written characters and performances and of course the snappy dialogue that left you wanting more.  The cinematography wasn’t too shabby for me either.  Highlights for me include the performances of Bridges, Erivo, Johnson and Hemsworth, but most importantly that of Lewis Pullman.  He plays the hotel’s caretaker (literally does it all) and to me his character’s story, arc and performance was the most noteworthy here.

Video 

The below video score and related critique of things here are based solely upon my viewing of the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Fox’s Bad Times At The El Royale.

• Encoding: HEVC / H.265
• Resolution: 4K (2160p)
• Dolby Vision: No
• HDR: Yes
• Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
• Clarity/Detail: Bad Times At The El Royale is not really a stunning looker on the format.  Its style changes throughout and clarity is not always prominent, but outside of that everything remains in check to keep the score elevated.  Textures and subtleties in closeups are paramount here such as wrinkles and stubble on actors or leather grain on briefcases and trunks for example.
• Depth: There were many shots featuring depth of field, but the best had to be the establishing shots of the hotel from outside or vastness once inside the hotel lobby or its hidden corridors.  One of my favorite scenes though involves a shotgun being pointed.  It’s incredible how much depth is there.  Third up would be Chris Hemsworth stroll through a flowery field.
• Black Levels: The black levels are all dark and natural.  Nothing gets lost in the night or shadows within the hotel’s secret corridors.  The contrast of fire against the dark looks exceptional too.
• Color Reproduction: The colors are where things fluctuate the most here.  In the beginning it had a very vintage 70’s kind of golden look to it all, but as time elapses the colors did become more vibrant and bright.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones all looked authentic throughout the presentation.
• Noise/Artifacts: Things never really look bad here.  It should be noted that there is a light veneer of grain throughout the 4K presentation and to my recollection only one sequence where grain is really more than usually noticeable.

Audio 

Like I mentioned up above in the video section, the below audio score and critical comments of such are based solely upon my viewing of Fox’s 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation of Bad Times At The El Royale.  I do want you to know that the  4K UHD Disc comes armed with a Dolby Atmos surround track while the 1080p Blu-ray houses a DTS-HD Master Audio one.

• Audio Format(s): English Dolby Atmos, English Descriptive Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1
• Subtitles: English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Spanish, French
• Dynamics: Like the video the audio presentation for Bad Times At The El Royale on 4K UHD Blu-ray Disc is a wonky, but still good one.  I say this because in the beginning of the movie (like first 15 minutes or so) I wasn’t convinced I was getting surround sound to my rear speakers, but as the story unfolded holy hell so did the dynamics of the surround track.  Things got louder, intenser and suddenly you found yourself engulfed in the middle of the action, but never missing a beat either.
• Height: The height channels are used quite frequently throughout with examples of soundtrack being pumped through them, rain, score, thunder, waves, the jukebox selections playing overhead and much more.
• Low Frequency Extension: The shotgun blasts are where you’ll feel the bass in this one.  It’s literally quite shocking and able to wake the dead.  A muscle car revving, waves crashing, score and so much more bring the bass here too.  I would say second most impressive part of this all is the weight given to the killer, vintage soundtrack employed throughout here.
• Surround Sound Presentation: Like I said up above there’s not much to be found here in the beginning, but once the craziness starts to happen the rears are full of everything like score, thunder, voices, door knocks and so much more.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialogue levels throughout are both clear and intelligible.

Extras 

Well as awesome as Bad Times At The El Royale is there’s not much in the way of Extras to report on here.  The 4K UHD disc contains none, but the included Blu-ray has a few.  They are as follows below.  Also, there’s a redemption code for the digital version of the film redeemable via Movies Anywhere, which gives you access to the 4K UHD version of the movie.  So there’s that!

• Making Bad Times at the El Royale (HD, 28:35) – Want to find out more about the production of this feature, its cinematography and more?  Well this is the place.  My only wish is for a longer length, but beggars can’t be choosers.
• Gallery (HD, 3:13) –
• Trailers (HD) – Teaser (2:05), Theatrical (2:03)

Summary 

Your mileage with Bad Times At The El Royale is obviously going to vary compared to others, but I think I armed you with enough ammo up above as to all the reasons why I found this such a fun time.  This dark, inter-twining tale of redemption was released by Fox on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray this past Tuesday, January 1st.  Despite the above average presentation the only downfall of this release is in the supplemental features area, but riddle me this.  You don’t buy a movie for its Extras alone, do you?  I buy it for the movie first and foremost.  Enjoy!

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DISCLAIMER: This 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray review was judged and graded using the following 4K certified Ultra HD Premium television set found here and player here.  The above screenshots are not taken from the actual 4K product.  Make sure to check out all our 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray reviews archived here.

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Bad Times At The El Royale

Delivers A Neo-Noir Story of Redemption

on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

This Past Tuesday, January 1st

ORDER NOW!

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