Drew Pearce
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Connections, in both directions
"Hotel Artemis" wants to be a trendy crime-action film, in the vein of recent trendy crime-action films like "John Wick."
There’s a John Wick hotel vibe to the place reflected in the lengthy list of rules which include warnings to not abuse the staff or attack fellow patients.
Unlike recent action standouts like John Wick or Atomic Blonde , Hotel Artemis spends as much time setting up emotional payoffs as it does action setpieces, which is unfortunate when the film seems to promise a finale much more climactic than the one it actually reaches.
Before seeing writer/director Drew Pearce's (writer "Iron Man 3") feature directorial debut, I thought it sounded an awful lot like "John Wick" with its secret hotel for criminals.
Surrounded by the largest riot the city has ever seen in 2028, this art-deco hotel feels like a combination of Barton Fink’s Hotel Earle and the assassin refuge from John Wick, the Continental.
It's kind of a fun idea – a bit of a riff on the Continental Hotel of the "John Wick" series, and other audiences may see similarities to "Smokin' Aces" (2006) — and for some audiences, its hits will be able to offset its misses.
The film isn’t a fetish object that exists, like Duncan Jones’s Mute , to indulge in the signifiers of the future popularized by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner .
With a catchy name and a stacked cast of genre favorites, it doesn’t take much to sell Hotel Artemis as a concept: a not-too-distant future, a secret hospital for criminals drenched in a sort of neo-Art Nouveau aesthetic that feels almost Blade Runner in nature.
It may not be the dystopian future previously seen in Blade Runner but there’s something about this film and LA.
The vibe seems like a cross between early “Blade Runner” and rehashed “John Wick.”
Given the setting, thoughts of Blade Runner are inevitable, but with its ghostly, labyrinthine realm of dimly lighted hallways, Hotel Artemis is more reminiscent of key locations in the L.A.-set Drive (a film that was also scored by Martinez).
In fact, like Blade Runner before it, it is merely taking its cues from the grungy Art Deco bones of the downtown Los Angeles in which it takes place.
Hotel Artemis maintains interest, if not investment, for those predisposed to the urban doom and gloom of films such as Escape from New York, Assault on Precinct 13, John Wick (whose ?“hotel for criminals” concept could have been the spark here), Judge Dredd and, just a theory, 1932’s Grand Hotel.
Rest assured, to describe it merely as a knockoff of that movie is to do it a bit of a disservice because it borrows from a number of different sources, ranging from “ The Purge ” to large chunks of the filmographies of John Carpenter and Walter Hill to, oddly enough, “Grand Hotel.”
Escape from New York (1981)
Directed by John Carpenter
influenced Hotel Artemis (2018)
Themes Visuals
It has the dystopian futuristic feel of "Escape From New York" and "The Road Warrior" movies.
Hotel Artemis maintains interest, if not investment, for those predisposed to the urban doom and gloom of films such as Escape from New York, Assault on Precinct 13, John Wick (whose ?“hotel for criminals” concept could have been the spark here), Judge Dredd and, just a theory, 1932’s Grand Hotel.
Presumably Pearce was after a giddy John Carpenter vibe, something along the lines of “Escape from New York.”
The whole thing rather reminded me of similar stripped-down thrillers from the ‘70s and ‘80s, films like John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and Sam Firstenberg’s Avenging Force, and to my mind this is a giant positive.
Hotel Artemis riffs on John Wick, but also of the cheese and violence-filled, celebrity-packed films of the mid-2000s, like Identity or Smokin’ Aces.
It's kind of a fun idea – a bit of a riff on the Continental Hotel of the "John Wick" series, and other audiences may see similarities to "Smokin' Aces" (2006) — and for some audiences, its hits will be able to offset its misses.
It recalls Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces," another would-be hip, violent action film that puffed out its chest and thought it was way more awesome than it really was.
But other efforts to coalesce colorful ensembles into multi-pronged action set pieces — Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces, for example, or even Bruce Willis’ misbegotten Hudson Hawk — more often than not fell into incoherence.
Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Directed by Navot Papushado
influenced by Hotel Artemis (2018)
Themes Visuals
Other examples include “Hotel Artemis” and “Terminal,” and to that growing list we can now add GUNPOWDER MILKSHAKE , a highly stylized and very entertaining movie (that also borrows from 1994’s “Leon: The Professional”).
Written and directed by Navot Papushado and co-written by Ehud Lavski, the film is like John Wick combined with Atomic Blonde and Hotel Artemis .
It’s the type of production that evolved from “Blank” into a movie like Paul McGuigan’s “Lucky Number Slevin” and a crunchy look adopted more recently in Drew Pearce’s “Hotel Artemis.”
Yet there's a feeling we've seen everything else before, in quirky violent comedy-dramas like Smokin' Aces and, more recently, Hotel Artemis – or, even still in cinemas, Bob Odenkirk's John Wick-a-like Nobody.
Whereas a lean, mean post-heist standoff would have been enough for most movies (certainly, Quentin Tarantino launched his directing career with an inventive spin on just that in “Reservoir Dogs”), Pearce overloads “Hotel Artemis” with all sorts of extraneous conflict, most of it centered on the arrival of an ominous figure known as the Wolf King.
This claustrophobic, Reservoir Dogs-inspired sensibility allows Pearce the opportunity to give real character to the sets, and he opts for a stylish, delectably playful look and feel that’s reminiscent of old Hollywood in an impressive way.
I mean, this is a movie that showcases the haunting 1960’s hit “California Dreamin’ ” by the the Mamas & the Papas — and also crowns its villain “The Wolf King,” which was the title of the first solo album by Mamas & the Papas frontman John Phillips, one of the most despicable monsters imaginable if the allegations by his daughter Mackenzie were true.
From the cutesy codenames, to the cheesy needle-drops (seriously, there’s a literal needle-drop as “California Dreamin’” is piped through the speakers while Nurse makes her rounds, complete with the record sleeve tucked into frame in case you forget what song is playing), Hotel Artemis giddily runs with all its genre pastiche.
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Directed by Jean-François Richet
influenced Hotel Artemis (2018)
Themes
Hotel Artemis maintains interest, if not investment, for those predisposed to the urban doom and gloom of films such as Escape from New York, Assault on Precinct 13, John Wick (whose ?“hotel for criminals” concept could have been the spark here), Judge Dredd and, just a theory, 1932’s Grand Hotel.
The whole thing rather reminded me of similar stripped-down thrillers from the ‘70s and ‘80s, films like John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 and Sam Firstenberg’s Avenging Force, and to my mind this is a giant positive.
The directorial debut of Drew Pearce, who previously worked on the scripts for Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation , Hotel Artemis has enough derivative concepts (think John Wick ’s Continental in the world of The Purge sequels ), sci-fi ideas, and characters to keep the movie zipping from room to room before the inevitable showdown.
Certain aspects of Hotel Artemis bring to mind recent genre movies like John Wick and The Purge , but for the most part their similarities are surface-level only.
The script from writer Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3”), who also directs, begins almost like something from the world of the “The Purge” franchise.
Rest assured, to describe it merely as a knockoff of that movie is to do it a bit of a disservice because it borrows from a number of different sources, ranging from “ The Purge ” to large chunks of the filmographies of John Carpenter and Walter Hill to, oddly enough, “Grand Hotel.”
If the invocation of another “Wolf” in L.A. crime doesn’t seem like a grab at something from Tarantino’s hip criminal universe (Harvey Keitel’s fixer from “Pulp Fiction”) then maybe the fact that all the “guests” are referred to by their room name – substitute “Niagara” and “Waikiki” for “Mr.
That coupled with a killer (and, some would argue, almost too subtle) promotional campaign including character posters modeled after classics like The Long Goodbye, American Gigolo and To Live and Die in L.A., Hotel Artemis has all the makings of a cult classic waiting to happen.
That coupled with a killer (and, some would argue, almost too subtle) promotional campaign including character posters modeled after classics like The Long Goodbye, American Gigolo and To Live and Die in L.A., Hotel Artemis has all the makings of a cult classic waiting to happen.
Pearce construye la película teniendo como referencia el vertiginoso ritmo de películas de acción recientes como la trepidante The Raid (2011) de Gareth Evans o la hiperestilizada de violencia del remake Dredd (2012), películas que también llevan a cabo la mayor parte de su desarrollo en un edificio y que hacen un extraordinario uso del espacio para construir elegantemente toscos set pieces que brillan por su ausencia en Hotel para criminales, cuya acción es genérica y sus intentos de violencia estrambótica, penosos.
It might not be the next John Wick or the next Dredd in terms of igniting an action franchise or a cult fan base, but it certainly has fun in the space it’s created.
But other efforts to coalesce colorful ensembles into multi-pronged action set pieces — Joe Carnahan’s Smokin’ Aces, for example, or even Bruce Willis’ misbegotten Hudson Hawk — more often than not fell into incoherence.
Much like the 1985 film “Clue,” there's always something going on, whether it's the electricity randomly going out, the nurse running to prevent an incident, or someone getting killed.
It’s the kind of movie that European filmmakers like Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicatessen,” “Micmacs”) have been trying to make for years — something zany and atmospheric and mostly set in a single location.
Surrounded by the largest riot the city has ever seen in 2028, this art-deco hotel feels like a combination of Barton Fink’s Hotel Earle and the assassin refuge from John Wick, the Continental.
Pearce wrote the lesser “Iron Man” and “Mission: Impossible” sequels.
Drew Pearce brings his knowledge of action films from "Iron Man 3" and "Mission Impossible" and he moves his cameras in close to wounds and arsenals.
Drew Pearce knows how tough that can be, having penned scripts for iconic franchises like the MCU (“Iron Man 3”) and “Mission: Impossible” (“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation”).