Primetime - Movie Review

Just talking about another Robert Pattinson movie in 2026. 2026 the year of Robert Pattinson and Anne Hathaway. She's not in this movie so I guess Robert Pattinson right now. To Catch a Predator. Who didn't watch that show back in the 2000s? So Primetime's directed by Lance Oppenheim. I can't be the only one who always wants to end that name with an er. It stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC. Admittedly I cannot do that Chris Hansen voice as well as he does. He does such a good Chris Hansen voice here. But he plays Chris Hansen. It's about Chris Hansen and the show To Catch a Predator from back in the 2000s. It's not really a Chris Hansen biopic. It's kind of more a To Catch a Predator biopic. But whereas this does deal with ambition and where's the moral area here. Yeah the guy's out catching predators. Sure. I suppose I should set that up people who might not know what To Catch a Predator was. To Catch a Predator was what Dutch and his crew tried to do before Dutch's crew was completely wiped out. To Catch a Predator was a show on Dateline NBC hosted by Chris Hansen. People who were part of the crew of To Catch a Predator would be in chat rooms posing as minors talking to adults. Those adults in the chat rooms would then want to meet those they thought were minors that they were talking to for very disgusting purposes. During the meetup Chris Hansen would come out with the printout of the entire conversation. The camera crew would roll in and then those guys would try to leave and they'd get tased, caught, arrested. And in the 2000s that was damn good television. So that's what this movie's about. This movie does deal with, address, and wrestle with Chris Hansen. Were his motives really pure or did he just want to have the biggest TV show by any means necessary? Robert Pattinson's great in the movie. He's got the inflection down, the voice. Pattinson's great and beyond the Chris Hansen persona, like beyond the voice, he's great. He has to sell the audience on he believes in what he's doing. But does his belief in what he's doing supersede his want to be the biggest? But I was surprised that it was Skyler Gismondo, pronunciation check on the name, he's really the heart and soul of the film. I actually appreciated what it was addressing there. They get these out-of-work actors, give them steady pay, of course they're going to be the bait. I mean, why not? It's a steady paycheck in Burbank, California for an aspiring actor. But he's wrestling with, are people taking my work seriously? Does Chris Hansen even care? I suppose I don't find the film controversial now because at a point, you know, like when these shows were all out, we were like, hey, they're doing it for the moral good, right? That's the motivation. Then at a point you just kind of get wise to the Hollywood act and you're like, that's not the motivation that's driving them. So what did it actually look like in production for To Catch a Predator? For Chris Hansen, his villains, are they the predators? Could be. But this movie shows us the real Chris Hansen villains are those polar bears from Lost. We remember those. He's got to beat Lost. Again, that kind of ambition, someone making a TV show. The TV show is crushing, but it's not getting respect. He wants it to get the respect, but also get the numbers. And that pressure that leads to escalation, got to have the next thing bigger than the last thing. In this social media day and age, like we see that with social media influencers, TikTokers, YouTubers, and such. When their channels are built on shocking engagement, eventually it leads to something that bites them in the ass. I liked how it was filmed. Also, it has the four by three aspect ratio when it's supposed to look like To Catch a Predator footage. But most of the movie looks wider than four by three. That's the square CRT television aspect ratio. It looks wider than that, but not as wide as the widescreen aspect ratio like you see here. You know, the 178 aspect ratio. This looks somewhere in between four by three and 178, but it also stylistically looks 16 millimeter, not 35. There's a little grainier. The contrast was more blown out. Regardless, it was a solid stylistic throwback aesthetic and I enjoyed that. So where is To Catch a Predator made for some good entertainment? The film Deconstructing To Catch a Predator makes for some good entertainment. I say good entertainment, not great entertainment because this movie, admittedly, is not as great as I thought it could be. Maybe the proper phrasing is not as great as the trailer made it look. I thought the first couple acts, maybe the first half, it was in the zone. It was a setup of the world of the production of the show. This kid who wants to be an actor in Hollywood and he just lands this role as one of the decoys on To Catch a Predator and he's just thrown into the middle of it. It was engaging. Also, the film in general is oddly funnier than I thought it would be. I feel like I almost have to explain like, look, I know we're talking about predators here and it's weird to say this is a funny movie, but it's not really dealing with the predator thing. It's actually dealing with Chris Hansen losing his mind over the show thing and it's actually surprisingly funny. I do mean losing his mind, too. At least that's what the editing entails. You know, there are these moments where it just looks psychedelic as hell, but then there's this side plot of essentially extortion and tabloids. It works for what the movie's going for, but if someone out there told me, don't think they're gonna tell me, but if I found out that this thing in the movie was filmed and put in after the fact, after the first cut, after the test audience screening, they just needed something else to show why Chris Hansen's going over the deep end, the show didn't feel like it was enough, okay, an affair scandal thing. Because I feel like there could be a cut of this movie that exists without that whole side thing and it still makes sense. And then the movie's going, it's pretty intense, and then it ends. Just, it's over now. Probably would have been a smoother ending if it cut to credits, immediately had Ferris Bueller come around the corner in a robe being like, you're still here? It's over. Go home. Go. But in the end, I enjoyed PRIMETIME. It's formulaic in a way, I mean it's not a musical biopic, clearly, but if I said musical biopic formula in a review, you know the formula I'm talking about. It's formulaic in a way that's far more specific and niche than the musical biopic formula. But there is something about PRIMETIME that feels formulaic for the formula of ambitious TV host who wants to be the biggest ever, but he's not really as respected as he thinks he is. Right, it's that. Boiled Down is a movie about the cautionary tale of ambition, and if you're a struggling actor looking for work in Hollywood, people will lie to you. Just don't trust them. If you're gonna do what they say, do what they say knowing they're manipulating you. Get that paycheck, but just know that what they're telling you is BS. Robert Pattinson was great, in fact, all the actors in the movie do a great job. It's a great character deconstruction, it's a tale of ambition, it's a more real conversation about, look, it's like this. Studios and audiences want very different things in life. Studios just want money. Audiences want good entertainment. If there's a host or a show saying, hey, we're doing good for the people, they want that to be the case too. But for studios, it's just money and engagement, and the hosts of those shows are going to respond more to their bosses than they will to us, the viewer. Reality, it is what it is. But all in all, I felt Prime Time was a good time, no alcohol required. Or so to Catch a Predator, have you seen it, what did you... Uh, wrong thing. Prime Time, have you seen it, what did you think about it? Or what's your favorite To Catch a Predator episode? Screw it, I'll lean into that. Mine was the guy who said he didn't have a last name. Brian, what's your last name? I don't have a last name. Guy was just stuffing his face with cookies to Catch a Predator. Whatever it is, whatever you think, comment below, let me know, and as always, if you like what you've seen here and you want to more, click right here to see more.