The new movie “Primetime” is about the television series that ran from 2004 to 2007, “To Catch a Predator”. The year 2004 marked the final season of “Friends”, and Seinfeld went off the air in 1998, setting the stage for an investigation show that tried to trap sexual predators of young girls and boys on national television. Amazingly, this show achieved #1 in ratings several times during its three-year run.

The lead reporter for this show was Chris Hansen, who would show up inside a house where the predator was waiting for some young person to arrive; then Hansen would question and humiliate the suspect, and then they would be arrested. The show followed this exact same series of events in every episode, which is probably why it only lasted three years.

For reasons unknown, a decision was made to make this television show from 20 years ago into a movie called Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen. This movie looks like it was shot using low-grade film, as if it were a cheap documentary. I have no idea why a decision was made to turn a bad television show from 20+ years ago into a bad documentary-like movie. The high rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 87% makes even less sense.

Like the television show from 20 years ago, this movie is a series of the same scenes repeated several times over. It was slow and boring and predictable, and as a movie, it never should have been greenlit. I rate this film a big pass, mainly because it never should have been made in the first place.