HYPNOTIC : Tuesday 16th May 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'HYPNOTIC' at my local independent movie theatre this week, and this American Sci-Fi action thriller is Co-Written, Co-Produced, Directed, Edited and scored by Robert Rodriguez. His previous film making credits include his 1992 debut with 'El Mariachi', then 'Desperado' in 1995, 'From Dusk till Dawn' in 1996, the 'Spy Kids' franchise which has so far spawned four films with a fifth reportedly in development for Netflix, 'Sin City' in 2005 and 'Sin City : A Dame to Kill For' in 2014, 'Planet Terror' in 2007, 'Machete' in 2010 and 'Alita : Battle Angel' in 2019. This film saw its 'work-in-progress' World Premier at SXSW in late March this year, was released Stateside last week too and cost in the region of US$65M to produce and has so far grossed just US$3.5M having garnered mixed reviews. It is reportedly the worst Box Office opening for any Rodriguez film and Ben Affleck led feature, and was partly blamed on the lack of marketing by the studio behind this production. 

The film opens up with Austin Police Detective Danny Rourke (Ben Affleck) recounting to his therapist (Nikki Dixon) the abduction of his young daughter Minnie (Lonie Nieves) which ultimately led to the break-up of his marriage. Afterwards, he is collected by his partner, Nicks (J.D. Pardo), who advises him they have received an anonymous tip that a safety deposit box at a bank is about to be robbed. 

At the stakeout, they observe a mysterious man give unheard instructions to a civilian woman, a bank teller, and two armed Police officers who seemingly without question follow his instructions as he enters the bank. Rourke beats him to the targeted safety deposit box, unlocks it and finds a solitary photograph of Minnie inside with the handwritten message 'Find Lev Dellrayne' on it. Rourke chases the man to a parking lot rooftop, where he witnesses him command two Police officers to shoot each other as he escapes, by seemingly jumping off a tall building much to Rourke's astonishment.

Rourke believes the heist has something to do with the disappearance of his daughter, and so he starts digging around. Forensics lead Rourke to the address of fortuneteller and hypnotist Diana Cruz (Alice Braga) who it turns out was the anonymous caller of the bank heist earlier in the day. After he describes the man from the heist, a client of Cruz's, under the control of the man from the bank, drives a motorcycle through Cruz's shop window before killing himself. Rourke takes Cruz into custody. She explains that the mysterious man from the bank is named 'Lev Dellrayne' (William Fichtner), and that both he and her are escaped 'Hypnotics' - powerful hypnotists trained by a secretive government 'Division' to control people's minds. Rourke is mysteriously immune to their control, more than likely caused by a block in his mind brought about by a traumatic or emotional experience in his life. Meanwhile Dellrayne, outside the station, commands Nicks to attack Rourke and Cruz, which he does with Cruz putting a bullet between his eyes to stop his onslaught.

Rourke and Cruz flee to Mexico now that they are on the TV news for the slaying of Nicks. There, they learn from a former Division contact Jeremiah (Jackie Earle Haley) that Dellrayne is looking for 'Domino', a powerful weapon developed by the Division, stolen, and hidden by Dellrayne when he escaped. 

Dellrayne then wiped his own memory leaving behind certain 'triggers' allowing him to gradually recall Domino's location and regain his own hypnotic power. Dellrayne eventually reveals himself to be Jeremiah in disguise and pursues Rourke and Cruz through a hypnotically constructed environment before Rourke taps into his own previously unknown hypnotic power and so giving them the chance to escape.

Cruz seeks out River (Dayo Okeniyi) a reclusive Division hacker, with Rourke who discovers Rourke's wife Vivian in a Division database. Later, Rourke investigates River's database himself, and discovers that Minnie is in fact Domino, the daughter of two of the most powerful hypnotics - Rourke and Cruz (who it turns out is Vivian). As 'Cruz' interrupts him, Rourke comes to the realisation that the room he is sat in and all of the events up to this time have been constructs. He wakes up in a large room populated by Division agents, all of whom he has seen or interacted with throughout the carefully constructed story, including Nicks, Dellrayne and even his therapist. 

Vivian and Dellrayne explain that Rourke and Vivian are both hypnotics, and their daughter Minnie was born and raised within the Division. He however, escaped with her to stop her from becoming their weapon. Hiding her and then wiping his memory, Rourke no longer remembers where she is, and the Division has been putting him through constructs of the search for her to make him remember, on twelve previous occasions. Rourke is plugged back into the construct for the thirteenth time now, where he repeats the session with his therapist and the stakeout at the bank heist. However, Rourke escapes using his own powers and flees as the Division realises that 'Find Lev Dellrayne' refers not to a person but a place - 'Deer Valley Lane' the location of a ranch where Rourke's foster parents have been hiding Minnie.

Rourke arrives at the ranch and is reunited with Minnie (Hala Finley), who has now aged by three years and has grown to have full control of her powers. The Division arrive en masse and surround the ranch but it is all revealed to be another construct this time of Minnie's creation. Minnie restores Vivian's memories that she was involved in Rourke and Minnie's escape, but wiped her memory so that when Minnie was powerful enough to defeat the entire Division at once, Vivian could unwittingly lead them to her. Minnie forces the Division agents to turn on each other so taking themselves out, including Dellrayne who turns his own gun on himself and plugs three bullets into his chest, after which she, her parents, and Rourke's foster parents embrace in their newfound freedom. In a mid-credits sequence, Dellrayne is shown to have survived, having constructed Rourke's foster-father Carl (Jeff Fahey) to look like him during the fight with Minnie. He is seen walking back to the helicopter from whence he came. 

'Hypnotic' is entertaining and watchable enough and at a brisk 92 minutes run time it never outstays its welcome. Here the maestro of B-grade movies Robert Rodriguez channels the likes of Christopher Nolan and Alfred Hitchcock dabbling in the worlds of Sci-Fi and thrillers with a good dose of action thrown in to keep viewers motivated enough to sit through this picture's preposterous premise which is slow to get off the ground but once the momentum builds it delivers a reasonably satisfying conclusion. Ben Affleck phones his performance in, as the grizzled square-jawed actor can see with his eyes closed that this barely above average thriller is hardly going to cause a stir in the pantheon of genre bending films of a similar ilk. 

'Hypnotic' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-