It’s been a quiet couple of years for Robert Rodriguez, with his last movie, We Can Be Heroes, dropping on Netflix all the way back in 2020. But the Desperado and Sin City auteur likes to keep busy, and so we have a brand spankin’ new sci-fi thriller on our hands. The mind-melting Hypnotic is in cinemas now.
Ben Affleck is your standard-issue burnt-out cop, wracked with guilt over his young daughter having been kidnapped almost right before his eyes, who throws himself into his work. But work throws him a curveball when he witnesses a bizarre bank robbery where the perp (perennial “hey it’s that guy!” William Fichtner) seemingly has the power to compel people to follow his orders, no matter how bizarre or self-destructive.
Hitting up a local psychic (Alice Braga) for insight, our Ben soon finds himself drawn into a secret civil war between “Hypnotics”—powerful psychics created by the government as weapons of war and tools of espionage, who escaped custody and now pursue their own agendas. But who is a Hypnotic and who isn’t? What’s real and what’s fantasy? And what does it all have to do with our hero’s missing kid?
Hypnotic plays out like a drive-in movie remake of Inception, made on a 10th of a budget but one hundred times the brio of Christopher Nolan’s brain-bender. Rodriguez may have made the jump to big budget fare with Alita: Battle Angel, but the From Dusk til Dawn director retains his indie sensibilities, offering up a complete suite of action set pieces and cool imagery that’s sure to please his fans. Certainly, Hypnotic is a B movie, but it’s a really fun B movie that wants you to have a good time. Sounds like just the ticket.
