Logan Lucky Review
PG-13: language and some crude comments
Fingerprint Releasing, Bleeker Street
1 Hr and 59 Minutes
Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Riley Keough, Katie Holmes, Katherine Waterston, Dwight Yoakam, Sebastian Stan, Jack Quaid, Hilary Swank, Daniel Craig, Jim O'Heir
INTRO: SODEROERGH YOU LIAR! You said you were going to retire and look at you crawling back into directing. Don’t you ever leave us like that again!
West Virginia family man Jimmy Logan teams up with his one-armed brother Clyde and sister Mellie to steal money from the Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. Jimmy also recruits demolition expert Joe Bang to help them break into the track's underground system. Complications arise when a mix-up forces the crew to pull off the heist during a popular NASCAR race while also trying to dodge a relentless FBI agent.
THE GOOD: I feel as if Soderbergh watched a particular Mike Judge animated series and wrote an extensive episode of that show and have the plot be a heist episode. Yeah, this reminds me so much of "King of the Hill" from the tone, the humor, and mostly the characters. You have these country folk who mostly are pretty simple minded, but all have their own little quirks. If "Oceans Eleven" was the AMA of heist movies, "Logan Lucky" is the CMA version of that.
There are a ton of wide lens shots Soderbergh uses that are either low angle and symmetrical or in & out of focus. Some of the shots feature characters going back and forth towards the camera a numerous amount of times that if this were to be released in 3D, I wouldn't complain about it.
It is as if Soderbergh saw "Masterminds" last year and how unentertaining and unfunny it was to where he overheard a person go, “Boy, if only someone would make a smart heist movie with dumb country people."
To which he responded with:
The story is your typical heist plot where you got these three siblings robbing the Charlotte Motor Speedway. What makes Logan Lucky refreshing is that this isn't focused on people attempting to rob a bank and not knowing how to do it, but instead it's people who have dabbled in criminal activity in the past going back to their regular antics again. Besides that, the movie is hilarious and creatively fun in the same vein "Baby Driver" was. Just like "Baby Driver", the film plays with tropes of its genre but not in a satirical way but an embracing way because it's all contextual to the characters and the setting. On the surface, these characters may seem dumb, but as the film goes on, they’re much smarter than they look as they use the setting of North Carolina to their advantage.
One of the best examples that perfectly captures the humor of the film is a scene where prison inmates are bargaining with their warden to get recent copies "Game of Thrones" books.
If I were to travel back in time to a decade ago and tell someone that Channing Tatum the dancer from "Step Up" would be able to carry an ensemble cast and lead a movie most likely they’ll laugh at my face. Now since this is is his 5th collaboration with Soderbergh it is expected for Tatum to carry a role and yet again excel at it. Not only he has the country voice down especially since we’ll revisit the voice once again next month in "Kingsman: The Golden Circle". If Soderbergh and Tatum become the new Burton and Depp, I’m 100% all for it because it seems like his performances prosper the most when he always works with him. Granted it hasn't gotten him an Oscar nomination but just wait soon it will.
Teamed up with him as his brother is Adam Driver who has done country voices in the past as well. I mean have you ever listened to “Please Mr. Kennedy” from “Inside Llewyn Davis"? In this, he is doing a voice that sounds so much similar to Forest Gump, and I love it. It even goes with goes with his character who is slow but have a heart of gold. Shoot, his character is a war vet who did service for his country.
But the actor who did it for me and solidified my love for this movie is Daniel Craig. His performance as Joe Bang has to be the most entertaining time Craig had on film since The Adventures of Tintin. Shoot, Daniel Craig is emoting more here than he did in the last Bond film. This shows that the man has range and is capable of doing comic roles outside of that "Force Awakens" cameo.
Besides them, you have a fun ensemble cast who has more screen time than others but are fun nonetheless. You have Jack Quaid, and Brian Gleeson as the brothers of Joe Bang, and they are the Beavis and Butthead of the film for they are shallow, slow, and incapable of the doing the simplest of tasks due to their incompetence.
THE BAD: Though the cast is great. There are some whose performances who goes over the top mainly Seth MacFarlane. He does a good job, but he's the only person who seems more animated than the rest of these characters (who are pretty much animated as well) and not because he has created cartoons. Also by the time Hilary Swank comes into the picture to finish off the story, she enters too little too late when it could finish off strong. She just feels like a thread that was tacked on because she was attached to the project.
LAST STATEMENT: Funny, creative, and the refreshing heist movie of its genre since Ant-Man, Logan Lucky is an entertaining romp from beginning to end.
Hey, Soderbergh since you did a diverse heist movie and country heist movie, can you do a millennial heist film? An urban heist film? I think only you can pull it off and I trust you to do so.
Rating: 4/5 |86%
Super Scene: The Logans cover their tracks well.
