Review of Logan Lucky (2017) by Leon B — 13 Feb 2018

Logan Lucky.

(2017).

Plot:

Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is from a blue-collar family from the hills of West Virginia, whose clan has been famous for its bad luck for nearly 90 years. After being fired from his job, and with his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) threatening to move out of State taking their daughter with her, Jimmy decides he has to do something to get his family's life back on track. With a little help from his brother Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), his sister Mellie (Riley Keough) and an incarcerated explosive expert, the aptly named Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), he plans to steal $14 million from the Charlotte Motor Speedway on the busiest race day of the year.

Review:

I was really looking forward to watching this movie, after seeing the crazy adverts with Daniel Craig, and the impressive cast but I was extremely disappointed with the outcome. It takes way too long to get going, and the heist made them look like a bunch of dumb criminals but the relationship between Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) and his daughter was quite emotional. The ending was cleverly put together by the director but after watching nearly 2 hours of the movie, I lost interest. Anyway, the film is about an upcoming football player, Jimmy Logan, who is forced to become a miner after getting injured. Now separated from his High School sweetheart, Bobbie (Katie Holmes), he regularly sees there little girl Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie), who lives with Bobbie and her new husband. After getting sacked from work, Jimmy puts together a plan to rob the Charlotte Motorway Speedway during a NASCAR Race, with his brother Clyde (Adam Driver) and sister Mellie (Riley Keough). They soon realise that they need a safe expert to get to the money, so they hire Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) for the job but the only problem is..... he's in jail. With time against them, Jimmy and Clyde manage to break Clyde out of jail for the duration of the heist, with the help of other inmates but the robbery doesn't go according to plan. Without the rest of the crew knowing, the Logan brothers cooked up there own secret plan to make sure everything goes smoothly but they have to lay low because the cops are hot on there tail. I must admit, it is a unique storyline, done in the theme of a Oceans Eleven movie but the characters were doing strange and crazy things throughout the movie, which made the heist feel ridiculous and unrealistic. The only aspect of the storyline which I could take seriously was the morals behind the heist, from Jimmy's point of view but it all seemed a bit too easy to me. From an entertainment point of view, you just want them to get on with it, especially after such a big build up, and when they eventually attempt the heist the whole plan seemed a right mess. Anyway, I wasn't that impressed with the movie but I'm sure there's people out there that would have enjoyed it. Disappointing!

Round-Up:

After retiring from directing movies, Steven Soderbergh, 55, decides to direct this movie, after being so impressed with the script. He first directed Access All Areas in 1985 and then he returned to make Sex, Lies and Videotape in 1989. He also brought you Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, the Oceans Eleven franchise, Solaris, The Good German, Che, The Informant, Contagion, Haywire, Magic Mike, Side Effects and Behind the Candelabra, which have all made him a big player in Hollywood. In this movie you don't really get to see true genius behind the storyline until the very end, when the true story unfolds, which is just like his Ocean movies when he reveals how the heists truly took place. It was good to see Daniel Craig out of his Speedo's and sharp suits, and it was also good to see Channing Tatum as an everyday working father, without stripping of his clothes on stage, so from that point of view, the director showed a different side of the actors but it wasn't enough to save the film. I'm still not sure what the ending meant, when the officer walked into the bar but with that aside, it's a straight forward heist movie which gets the thumbs down from me.

Budget: $29million.

Worldwide Gross: $47.4million.

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama.

Cast: Daniel Craig, Channing Tatum, Katie Holmes, Adam Driver, Seth MacFarlane, Jim O'Heir, Riley Keough, Rebecca Koon, David Denman, Eric Perez, Katherine Waterston, Jack Quaid, Brian Gleeson and Hilary Swank. 4/10.