TAKING cues from everything from Assault on Precinct 13 to John Wick is this enjoyably rambunctious, self-aware romp which pits bad guys against worse guys in a riot-torn Los Angeles in the year 2028.

The riots are due to the water supply being privatised, leaving most ordinary folk being unable to afford access to it. Crime is rampant, often perpetrated by the career-criminals who take advantage of the anarchy for personal gain.

When bank-robbing brothers Waikiki (Sterling K Brown) and Honolulu (Brian Tyree Henry) are in need of some quick medical assistance following a heist gone wrong, they make their way to a hidden safe haven – a secret, members-only hospital for criminals hidden inside a faded hotel.

The Hotel Artemis is run by an ultra-strict yet compassionate Jean “The Nurse” Thomas (Jodie Foster) who, with the help of appropriately nicknamed orderly, Everest (Dave Bautista), enforces their strict rules and regulations; no killing other patients and no weapons beyond the gate are chief among them.

This means that Waikiki and Honolulu must learn to play nice alongside fellow hotel patients, the world-class assassin Nice (Sofia Boutella) and wise-cracking arms dealer Acapulco (Charlie Day).

When the brothers realise they’ve stolen diamonds belonging to LA crime lord Orian Franklin (Jeff Goldblum), who has his hot-headed son Crosby (Zachary Quinto) in tow, they realise they must put their skills to the test and use the protection of the Artemis to survive. Needless to say the all-important rules don’t stay followed for long.

The film’s greatest asset is its distinctive setting, a kind of Hollywood Golden Age relic (picture a dingier version of “The Continental” from the John Wick series) updated in-part for the demands and horrors of a crime-ravaged 21st century where there’s not so much good guys and bad guys anymore as varying degrees of self-interest and survival instincts.

Wrapped around a fairly standard plot of protagonists being stuck in a tight spot having to fight their way out is an intriguing, stylish world fleshed out nicely by Scots-born debut director Drew Pearce.

He draws from his experience as a writer on Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation to inject the set-pieces with visual panache that helps elevate the film from its familiar crime-thriller trappings, structural flaws and a plot destination that’s fairly easy to see coming.

The cast really helps sell the particularly madcap tone; Bautista is entertainingly self-aware of his muscle-man persona and has a lot of fun with the film’s wry dialogue (“visiting hours are never!”), while Day gives good creep as the punch-worthy Acapulco.

And although sensitivity and depth of feeling aren’t exactly the film’s forte, Foster gives one of her better performances in recent memory by injecting at least a semblance of much-needed emotion into the proceedings as we learn more about The Nurse’s back story.

There’s not as much there thematically as the film thinks there is, far less in the metaphor than the concept is able to stretch. But as an exercise in darkly humoured style, it’s got worthwhile things going for it. This is one hotel you wouldn’t really want to check in to but is a thrill to watch descend into villainous chaos.