Hotel Artemis - Blu-ray

Film: Los Angeles in the not-too-distant future: chaos and anarchy reign on the streets, a civil uprising is imminent. This situation Waikiki (Sterling K. Brown) and his team want to exploit for a bank robbery. But the plan fails and for Waikiki and his badly injured brother there is now only one safe place: the Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital for criminals. The reason this place can exist at all is because the manager (Jodie Foster) has always stubbornly demanded that her guests follow certain rules. So far, that's worked - but foolishly, Waikiki's brother has taken something in the robbery that a particularly powerful and ruthless man wants back. And whether his henchmen will abide by the rules of Hotel Artemis seems questionable.

Hotel Artemis is, at its core, a very good thriller with cult potential. Alright, the hospital with its rules is already very reminiscent of the gangster hotel in the John Wick movies. But detached from that, this dark vision of the future has some really good ideas and atmospheric images, which actually give the flick a great cult potential. The problem is that director Drew Pearce has made it too cramped for just that. It seems as if he wanted to create a cool cult film with all his might, which makes his staging lack the very nonchalance that would have been necessary for the concept to work. As it is, however, Pearce meanders indecisively between hysterical gags, gritty drama and brutal thriller, losing more and more sight of the already thin story.

When the action really picks up towards the end, it's unfortunately already too late. It's not necessarily because of the actors. Jodie Foster is really good as a resolute head nurse with panic attacks, Sterling K. Brown from the drama series This is Us proves to be a pretty cool sock, Dave Bautista is perfectly cast as a muscleman with an iron will to survive and Jeff Goldblum is - just Jeff Goldblum. The only negative here is really that Charlie Day (Kill the Boss) acts even more hysterical than usual, and that Sofia Boutella again gets to play just another variation on the role she made famous with in Kingsmen.

Good actors, a promising initial idea, and a really good visual execution help make Hotel Artemis worth watching, all things considered. However, these positives make it even more apparent that there are some clear weaknesses in the script and direction that are responsible for making this action thriller the cool cult film that it so obviously would like to be. It's just disappointing, but still entertaining enough for an entertaining evening at home. Worth seeing!

Image + Sound: The Blu-ray's image pleases with a high level of detail. Although the action is kept in rather darker tones, hardly anything is lost in sharpness as a result. At most, minimal image noise can be discerned in very dark moments. Overall, however, the picture also leaves a positive overall impression due to the atmospheric coloring and decent contrasts. The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is able to unleash its full power, especially in the final act. During gun battles and explosions, it cracks quite a bit in the home theater. Good.

Extras: Really a lot of bonus material is unfortunately not offered here. At least there is a really listenable audio commentary by director Drew Pearce and producer Adam Siegel. The two men talk animatedly about the making of the film and deliver some very interesting details. On top of that, there are about 19 minutes of promo interviews with Jodie Foster, Dave Bautista and Jeff Goldblum, among others.

Conclusion: Hotel Artemis unfortunately didn't become the cult film it would have liked to be. However, despite some flaws, the futuristic gangster thriller is exciting and entertaining enough to warrant an entertaining evening at home. The Blu-ray is technically well realized, the bonus material, however, is a bit meager. All in all, this is still enough for a: recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp