Title: Hypnotic
MPA Rating: R
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Ben Affleck, Alice Braga, William Fichtner
Runtime: 1 hr 33 mins

What It Is: In this world there are weaponized hypnotics. People who, through the power of suggestion can commit any act as if it has never occurred. When police officer Danny Rourke (Affleck) notices a criminal use hypnosis to both commit the crime and escape he’s determined to find  this mysterious Dellrayne (Fichtner). He won’t do it alone though. He meets fellow hypnotic Diana (Braga) who he thinks can guide him to finding Dellrayne and inevitably his missing daughter.

What We Think: This film is an absolute mess of narrative storytelling. Not only does NONE of the plot make sense as it unfolds you’re wondering the entire time if Rodriguez and crew just thinking you’re completely stupid. Affleck seems like he doesn’t wanna be there most of the time and Alice Braga is working way harder than this script deserves. William Fichtner will never not look like some sort of villain so that checks out. There are visually bad looking flares of CGI that just don’t work and overall this entire experience falls flat and felt like a slog to get through.

Our Grade: F, Don’t watch this. There’s nothing here. Just stupid situation after stupid situation. At a certain point I became so frustrated with every dumb twist and ridiculous turn to this screenplay I had considered walking out. I didn’t but I’m thinking I’m the one that truly made the mistake. Affleck made one of 2023’s best films from behind the lens and he’s made perhaps the worst film I’ve seen in front of it. I mean you can see from my previous words that this is certainly one to skip. Unless you want to lose approximately 365 brain cells per minute watching this thing.