"Hypnotic" has a pulpy, enthrallingly silly appeal without being any good

Hypnotic (2023)

You know the nacho fries Taco Bell commercial with Josh Duhamel that looks like a conspiracy action thriller. That fake movie is kind of how “Hypnotic” plays, and yet this conspiracy action thriller is made by genre-dabbling director Robert Rodriguez (2019’s “Alita: Battle Angel”). And you would never know it right away. Something preposterous is always happening in this loopy, all-plot sci-fi mind-bender that seems cobbled together from “The Matrix,” “Inception,” “Shutter Island,” and John Woo’s “Paycheck” (also starring Ben Affleck). “Hypnotic” isn’t exactly “good,” but it is amusingly dumb in its audacity.

Ben Affleck gravels and looks appropriately lost as Danny Rourke, an Austin detective who's grieving over the disappearance of his young daughter. As soon as he discovers a couple of bank robberies are inside jobs, Danny spots the robbery puppet master: an enigmatic man who turns out to be a mind-controlling hypnotist (or hypnotic), played with deliciously goofy gusto by go-to heavy William Fichtner. Once Danny finds a polaroid of his daughter in a safety deposit box, he turns to psychic Diana Cruz (Alice Braga) for help, realizing nothing is what it seems. 

“Hypnotic” is slickly workmanlike, and Rodriguez’s irresistibly pulpy flavor and breathless pacing do keep it from ever getting dull. It’s strange from the jump—which is most likely by design—and consistently feels like we’re inside a fever dream. Rodriguez co-wrote the plotty script with Max Borenstein (2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong”), and while there is an intriguingly cool concept here, the rug keeps getting pulled out from under us until we feel like we’re free-falling. Plausibility has no place here in this heightened construct of a world within the real world. There are twists on top of twists, and it all becomes so convoluted that the twists even continue through the credits, à la “Wild Things.” Alice Braga gets tasked with explaining what’s going on with so much inane expository dialogue. Even stranger, Jackie Earle Haley gets one scene and no time to register, and Jeff Fahey has a pivotal role by the end.

If you find “Hypnotic” to be fun to watch, you’re right. If you find “Hypnotic” to be a bad movie, you’re probably also right. Think “Serenity” (the Steven Knight one from 2019 where the pulpy potboiler turned out to be, um, something else). There isn’t really any emotional weight to the proceedings, even with Danny’s daughter missing without a trace, but it is a silly ride while you’re on it. Like those nacho fries, “Hypnotic” will go right through you, and you may feel a little guilty for liking it, too. 

Grade: C +

Ketchup Entertainment is releasing “Hypnotic” (93 min.) in theaters on May 12, 2023.