HOTEL ARTEMIS [R] C-

Writer-director Drew Pearce (the writer-producer of “Iron Man 3” at the helm for the first time) takes a page from the creative team behind “John Wick,” crafting a mythic world where criminals attempt to live by exacting codes of order. In the case of “Hotel Artemis,” we get a slightly futuristic nightmare with a haven – of sorts – for the wrongdoers, a fortified hospital that forces the villains to leave their weapons at the gates and promise not to kill each other or harm the staff, while in their care. The Nurse (Jodie Foster) tends to an assortment of thieving killers (Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Charlie Day, and Brian Tyree Henry) with assistance from an orderly named Everest (Dave Bautista). The trick here is to slow everything down and make the audience wait for the explosive eruption to come. Thanks to Foster and Bautista, there’s humor, but less of a payoff than we might have hoped for. That is due, in part, to the focus on a protagonist intent on stitching folks up rather than ripping them apart.