If you watch enough movies and TV (and I watch way, way, way too much), over time you start to notice certain names.  Sometimes it’s a writer, sometimes an actor or actress, sometimes a director, even a cinematographer or composer that always seems stuck to something you enjoy.  Drew Goddard is one of my favorite names to see pop up on a project.  Pretty much everything Goddard is attached to is stellar from his TV work as a writer/producer on Buffy, Angel, Alias, Lost and The Good Place to his film work on the Cloverfield series, The Martian, and his last directorial turn in 2012’s The Cabin in the Woods.  Chris Hemsworth’s best non-MCU film is probably still Cabin and he could badly use a non-MCU hit at this stage in his career.  Goddard has an intriguing premise and a really strong ensemble for Bad Times at the El Royale, and his past successes are more than enough to get me to give it a shot when it opens on October 12, 2018 (even though it’s likely to get squashed by First Man).