Primetime sees Robert Pattinson (The Odyssey) at the top of his game in a dramatised film about journalist Chris Hansen, who began hosting To Catch a Predator in 2006.
The opening is the best part of the film, where decoy ‘teenager’ Del Harvey (Phoebe Bridgers) has invited “MarriedAndLookingForFun313131” (Tony Revolori – Roofman) to her ‘house’, telling him to make himself a drink while she gets changed… at which point Hansen steps in.
Naturally, the mark starts gibbering away about how he thought she was older, while assuming Hansen to be her Dad. But then the penny drops as everything is laid out for him, as the slew of dodgy messages are read back to the pervert, about what he wanted to do.
I could be flippant and say that, following a few years on from Phoenix Nights, Hansen should’ve opened with, “I’m getting the word… NONCE!”, but seriously, given how this sting operation is followed up by the police waiting outside to arrest the mark, isn’t this entrapment? I don’t think such a situation would work as a legal case in the UK.
Either way, it’s working well for this show, and leads to a move to a ‘primetime’ slot, going up against flavour of the day, Lost. But this means they’ll have to seek bigger and, potentially, more dangerous marks to keep the ratings going.
This also means bringing in a new decoy, Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo – Superman), to play a 13-year-old boy and play his part among perverts such as Crazyfrog73, played by Jonathan Lipnicki. YES! THAT Jonathan Lipnicki!
Plus, there’s a fairly length segment late on in the film, the details of which I’ll hide behind a spoiler tag in case you want to avoid everything about it – although I won’t give any outcomes…
Primetime starts with its most powerful moment, but starts to lose its way a bit, when it spends time going into the personal life and the marriage issues of its lead, as well as an unnecessary, brief subplot when female producer Andie (Merritt Wever – Christy) is considering moving to another network.
It’s still a highly engaging watch, however.
As for the aspect ratio of this film, it understandably uses a narrow 1.33:1 aspect ratio when showing the filming of one of the ‘Predator‘ episodes, but looks way too tight when only slightly expanding to 1.50:1 for the rest of the film. I’d rather have stuck with a traditional 1.85:1 for that side of things, as the 1.50:1 ratio does become annoyingly and unnecessarily cramped before too long.
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credit scenes.
Primetime is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 109 minutes
Release date: October 28th 2026
Studio: A24
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (some scenes), 1.50:1 (ARRIRAW (4.6K), HDTV, Anamorphic Hawk Scope)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Lance Oppenheim
Producers: William Iannaccone, Lars Knudsen, Brighton McCloskey, Robert Pattinson, Ari Aster, Fred Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones
Writers: Ajon Singh
Based on article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die” by Luke Dittrich
Berger, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones
Music: Ari Balouzian
Cast:
Chris Hansen: Robert Pattinson
Andie Bender: Merritt Wever
Dan Plum: Skyler Gisondo
Xavier Von Erck: Matthew Maher
Del Harvey: Phoebe Bridgers
Frag: Victor Brunette
Cortland Gunn: Bokeem Woodbine
Bill Conradt: Alex Winter
MarriedAndLookingForFun31313: Tony Revolori
Redbd: Bob Ari
Crazyfrog73: Jonathan Lipnicki
WrestlingDudeEastTX: Matt Smith
Mary Hansen: Anna Faris
Connor Hansen: Franco Brocato
Chase Hansen: Luca Brocato
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.