Hypnotic

Directed by Robert Rodriguez, Hypnotic follows Ben Affleck’s Danny Rourke as he attempts to capture a criminal (William Fichtner’s Dellrayne) with the ability to hypnotize people into doing whatever he wants. It’s a nifty premise that is, at the outset, employed to promising and entertaining effect by Rodriguez, as the filmmaker, armed with his and Max Borenstein’s screenplay, kicks the proceedings off with an exciting bank-robbery sequence that’s enhanced by the undercurrent of sci-fi weirdness – with the engaging atmosphere perpetuated by Affleck’s solid turn as the tortured hero. (It’s Fichtner’s agreeably larger-than-life turn as the mustache-twirling villain that stands as an ongoing highlight, however.) There’s little doubt, though, that Hypnotic‘s compelling vibe is slowly-but-surely diminished by a hit-and-miss midsection, as the movie is, to an increasingly woeful extent, dominated by palpable lulls that are compounded by Rodriguez’s continuing emphasis on is-it-real-or-is-it-just-in-Danny’s-head type happenings (ie it’s just so tedious, ultimately). And while the picture admittedly does contain an unexpected and intriguing twist at around the one-hour mark, Hypnotic, which builds towards a somewhat underwhelming climax, has long-since cemented its place as a woefully erratic endeavor that feels like it should be much, much better.

** out of ****