Logan Lucky - Review

Logan Lucky

Steven Soderbergh is an American film producer, director, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. His first indie film was a drama called "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (1989) which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and became a worldwide commercial success, making the then-26-year-old Soderbergh the youngest director to win the festival's top award.

However, he is best known for directing his critically acclaimed and more commercial Hollywood hit films including the crime comedy Out of Sight (1998), the biographical film Erin Brockovich (2000), the crime drama film Traffic (2000) (for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director), the 2001 remake of the comedy heist film Ocean's 11 and its two sequels—known collectively as the Ocean's Trilogy, the medical thriller Contagion (2011) and the comedy-drama Magic Mike (2012).

He has also directed smaller, less conventional works, such as the sexy drama film The Girlfriend Experience (2009 and now a SHOWTIME TV program), which starred the then-active pornographic actress Sasha Grey; and the biopic about Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, Che (2008). Soderbergh also directed, photographed and edited all episodes of the television drama The Knick. In addition, he has produced numerous film and television programs, and provided cinematography and editing on various projects.

I offer you all of this to let you know that he is truly a talented and smart director. So when he has a film coming out, I tend to go see his work whether good, average or bad reviews.

PLOT: In his latest effort, “Logan Lucky”, is a modern story about a West Virginia family man named Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) who teams up with his one-armed brother Clyde (Adam Driver) and sister Mellie (Riley Keough) to steal money from the NASCAR Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina. Jimmy also recruits demolition expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig aka James Bond - 007) to help them break into the track's money underground funneling 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 Special Agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank).

REVIEW: “Lucky Logan” is a rebranded “Oceans 11”, only this adaptation where the assembled crew staying two steps ahead while out smarting the "Man” doesn’t have the same natural charismatic pop, charm and polish of the Clooney effort. What Soderbergh offers instead is a basic reliance on some known southern stereotypes, mixed with some personal charm of the characters he has cast to move this blue collar crime caper story along. But is it enough to recommend for you to getting off the couch to drive to your local theater to see?................... Aaaah, no.

I found “Lucky Logan” somewhat laborious to watch, patiently waiting for something to happen that would enthrall me, surprise me, tickle me, and even fro me to admire. And while there were some moments of amusement and well-timed humorous situations, they were far and definitely too few apart. Running almost 2 hours the last 25 minutes was very solid and smart, but it was way too late for this film to reconcile the mistake of having this viewer be dragged along of a casual slog of a screenplay that was predicated on the victims of the crime (NASCAR security) being as dimwitted if not more that the perpetrators of the crime itself.

Oddly enough “Lucky Logan” is not boring, it’s just not as entertaining as  the 93 score Rotten Tomato critic pool is suggesting. The entire film felt like I was watching a film about a Director having fun making a film about slightly dim witted criminals who on one hand had the sophisticated criminal IQs to qualify for admission to the Mensa Society and at the same time were equally unsophisticated and dimwitted in their personal interactions with one another on par with the 1960’s sitcom “The Beverly Hillbillies”. This set up did not work for me. 

This was an impressive assembled cast who put some heartfelt genuine effort into making this film work. Unfortunately it never reaches an entertaining takeoff as it seemed to be perpetually stuck in a series of patch work scenes that never really felt connected to the other.

Lucky Logan is a non-boring film that was a bit of a slog to watch.

2.75 Stars