At times I was reminded of the 2015 thriller Solace, in which Anthony Hopkins helped the FBI by functioning as a sort of psychic satnav. Somehow, this is even sillier.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 28, 2023

As it is, even with the short running time, there are plenty of opportunities to notice the lack of spark between Affleck and Braga, the grating bombast of the soundtrack and the paltry special effects.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 26, 2023

It’s sloppily executed, without a hint of dramatic tension.

| Original Score: 1/5 | May 26, 2023

The mood is gun-happy and conspiracy-minded, but the real killer is what feels like 80 percent of the running time being spent with Affleck and co-stars standing in rooms explaining the plot.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 25, 2023

As a film fan, you have to respect the continued indie spirit with which Rodriguez works... but the script and performances in “Hypnotic” are too laughably absurd to take seriously.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 15, 2023

While it's not plausible, believable, or even able to fully follow its own logic strains, it does achieve a certain level of deranged camp. Put it this way: It's never dull, and if nothing else, "Hypnotic" is a hoot.

| Original Score: C+ | May 12, 2023

A doofy, though never boring sci-fi thriller.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 12, 2023

For the most part it's fast-paced and clever, capitalizing on Rodriguez's economical filmmaking style, which includes shooting and editing the film while enlisting family members in other key roles.

| May 12, 2023

The movie is, if nothing else, ruthlessly efficient enough in delivering its crowd-pleasing bits that truly starving suspense genre hounds, at least, won’t necessarily mind.

| May 12, 2023

A grumpy Ben Affleck can’t save this confused thriller that has as many twists as a trepanning drill, and is about as likely to leave you feeling lobotomised.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 12, 2023

Affleck trudges through the proceedings... barely lifting his eyes and delivering his lines in a gritted monotone.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 12, 2023

An uneven, at times mesmerizing and dazzling mind-bender of a psychological thriller that plays like a drive-in movie version of a Christopher Nolan film.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 12, 2023

Rodriguez forgoes his usual playfulness and sense of rebellious fun in favor of a Christopher Nolan-like mind-bender, bogged down by an overly serious approach and convoluted storytelling.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 11, 2023

As the season gets stuffier with bigger budgets and runtimes, it will act as a cosy reminder of what a summer movie looked like 20 years ago, and what’s more hypnotic than that?

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 11, 2023

Hypnotic has that run-and-gun energy, rough around the edges but not in a way that impinges on the fun.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 11, 2023

The reality is that, not unlike an Escher painting, the damn thing keeps tying itself into knots. This isn’t the mesmerizing neuro-noir you want it to be. It’s closer to Inception for Dummies.

| May 11, 2023

Give “Hypnotic” time. It gets better. Not great, but better as it goes along.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 11, 2023

The film is a pointlessly complicated house of cards that crumbles due to its own hollowness.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 11, 2023

Hypnotic isn’t just refreshingly straightforward for Rodriguez, but for Ben Affleck too.

| May 10, 2023

Imagine Christopher Nolan’s Memento if it had been rewritten by an escaped lunatic: voila, that’s Hypnotic, an entirely uproarious 90 minutes at the cinema which asks nothing more of its audience than that they keep their incredulity suspended...

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 10, 2023