Hypnotic

Year of release : 2023

 

Run time : 1h33min

 

Genre : Action / Thriller / Mystery / Sci Fi

 

Cast : Ben Affleck, William Fichtner, Jeff Fahey

 

Director : Robert Rodriguez

 

 

 

Detective Danny Rourke goes to therapy in order to get back into the field, after his daughter was kidnapped 3 years prior,by an 18 year old with mental problems.

 

His partner picks him up from the doctor's office,telling him there's information on a bank robbery. While on stake out, he and his colleagues see a strange man talking to people shortly, after which these people follow his commands. Everybody's guess is, including mine, they came up with an elaborate plan to rob the bank (I kept on thinking of Inside Job,for some unknown reason).

Refusing to listen to his colleagues, Danny goes after the man, entering the bank.There, Danny looks into the safe box and finds his daughter's picture with the writing on it 'Find Lev Dellrayne'.

 

Chasing after the man,he disappears after he jumps from the rooftop and turns his colleagues against each other, and Danny is convinced the man is connected to his daughter's disappearance.

 

Running a trace,he ends up at a fortune teller's store, Diana. Diana recognizes the man ,telling him he is Lev Dellrayne, and he is the most powerful hypnotist.

After a man who was her friend is trying to k!ll them,and k!lls himself after failing to do so, Danny takes Diana to a safe place at the Police station.

 

Diana tells him she's also a powerful hypnotist,who can hypnotize people just by looking at them and saying some random lines in a certain way. Her and Dellrayne used to be in a secret government project called Division, where they were trained to control people's minds, but Dellrayne went rogue, as he wanted to be the most powerful and control everyone.

Danny doesn't believe her, so she shows her powers on his colleague,as on him,mysteriously,it doesn't work . To be honest she talked normal, nothing sounded different ('cause she was talking about breathing and all).

After his colleague tries to k!ll them and Diana shoots him,they run away together,trying to find out what's going on,find Danny's daughter and save their lives.

 

To be honest until the reveal, I found the hypnotist bits ridiculous,as there's no way you can hypnotize people you've never met,never sat down to talk to, never allowed you to hypnotize them ever in any way,to just hypnotize them with one line,the first time you talk to them. There's a scene in which a bank teller says 'Good morning' to Dellrayne ,and he says to her it's late in the afternoon,which makes her close,go to the safe box, take it, and leave in the bank's car,driving into cars! How could he program her to do that, without seeing her before, to plant that trigger in her mind, to do all that when she hears that line?! It doesn't make any sense! It's one thing to tell someone to put their finger in their mouth,and them to do it, and another to say a random line making them do something which has nothing to do with what you just said! These skills are not about hypnosis but having certain abilities like the mutants in X Men.

 

The movie is shot on these brown- khaki colors, as if we see through sun glasses, reminding me of late summer afternoons, for some unknown reason. If you keep this in mind, you can tell what's real and what not .

The movie also reminded me of another Ben Affleck movie,in which he didn't know what was going on, having to pick up the crumbs he left for himself from a previous 'life' , Pay check,from 2004.

 

The visual effects were good, some of them reminded me of Inception.

 

The actors were good.

 

The soundtrack was good.

 

Hypnotic is streaming on Peacock, is for rent / sale on Amazon, AppleTv, Fandango at Home, Redbox, and is even playing in the Fandango cinemas.

 

Rating : Worth a watch !