Chris Hansen

Big weekend planned? Why don't you go ahead and take a seat over there for me? Do you watch movies? Well, there's something you should know.

I'm reviewing a film about Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC.

You've seen how it looks, right? Now you're free to leave.

You can walk out that door right there.

This film is the narrative feature directing debut of Lance Oppenheim, who has another buzzy A24 film hitting theaters soon with the documentary You Can See Everything, which he co-directed with Nathan Fielder.

The script is from another first-timer, Ajahn Singh, in his first produced feature film script.

Prime Time stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, who in the early and mid-2000s had a network hit with his show To Catch a Predator, which began as a segment on the news magazine show Dateline NBC and then was spun off into its own thing.

Now, I watched both the segments and the show when they aired originally back in the 2000s, but if you're not familiar with To Catch a Predator, Briefly, the show worked with an online organization called Perverted Justice that posed as underage teens in chat rooms online and lured adults to a house thinking that they were there to, well, doing exactly what you're probably imagining.

Who are you? She had a seat right there.

I'm Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC, and we're doing a story on adults who try to meet teens online.

You see how this looks, right?

Hey, Lance, how are you?

And I thought it was really – I had no idea what it was.

It was like encountering all these references to something that totally missed me.

And so then I started watching the show, and there was something so interesting about the way Chris Hansen operated.

Like he was this – mythological being who almost had this superhuman ability to make anyone who was in front of him basically obey the laws of his reality of this constructed world where he had adults pretending to be children.

i would never tell you

yeah i just i just know i just know there is a you know something that that you know they're made tweaks um i want to talk about you know first of all the the some of the the festival hits like what we're seeing with robert pattinson uh and his latest movie primetime where he you know plays uh chris hansen the host of to catch a predator he's been getting universal acclaim for his performance a possible oscar nominated performance there at that goes into wide uh the uh hachan shake your booty where That has also been a festival hit with Rinko Kukuchi getting a very great response as well.

Then you have what? Oh, my gosh.

Just so many.

Some of them are strange and some may be of interest to you because you've been a veteran broadcaster for some time.

There is a new movie out from A24, which makes these very arty movies, about the Chris Hansen story.

You remember Chris Hansen, who was the host that produced the Predator host to Catch a Predator in 2006.

And this is a dramatization of him, as played by Robert Pattinson, really trying to get to expose several of these child molesters or guys that are going out with underage girls, and he sets up these various different scenarios where these guys are called.

They put in a bait youth, male or female, depending on the inclination of the predator, and tag them there.

I would say the same thing with movies, but I don't know.

Prime Time is rated R. Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen in this unflattering dramatization of how he made TV history with To Catch a Predator 20 years ago.

Now, from all accounts...

His version of Chris Hansen is a little unhinged as he chases ratings right on up until the on-air suicide that ultimately derailed the show.

As you might expect, Chris Hansen is not a fan of this movie.

He hadn't seen it, but...

Still not a fan.

Do not adjust your sets, end quote.

He had a...

I would say he had a much more interesting role just because it was, like, a more explored character, and, like, different interesting things were explored with him versus the Chris Hansen character.

Mm.

But yeah, both were great.

It's in 2006.

To catch a predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history rated R hitting theaters today.

And then what else do we got? The stunt driver.

That's hitting theaters as well.

I would say the same thing with movies, but I don't know.

Prime Time is rated R. Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen in this unflattering dramatization of how he made TV history with To Catch a Predator 20 years ago.

Now, from all accounts...

His version of Chris Hansen is a little unhinged as he chases ratings right on up until the on-air suicide that ultimately derailed the show.

As you might expect, Chris Hansen is not a fan of this movie.

He hadn't seen it, but...

Still not a fan.

Do not adjust your sets in quote.

i would never tell you

yeah i just i just know i just know there is a you know something that that you know they're made tweaks um i want to talk about you know first of all the the some of the the festival hits like what we're seeing with robert pattinson uh and his latest movie prime time where he you know plays uh the chris hansen the host of to catch a predator he's been getting universal acclaim for his performance a possible oscar nominated performance there at that goes into wide uh the uh hachan shake your booty where That has also been a festival hit with Rinko Kukuchi getting a very great response as well.

Then you have what? Oh, my gosh.

Just so many.