Movie Review: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is an epic sci-fi journey that expects its characters and the audience to hop on board to its absurdity after only the first few minutes. The film opens at Norm’s, a diner in present-day Los Angeles. It seems to be a busy, but normal evening at Norm’s, when a man claiming he is from the future (Sam Rockwell) busts through the front door, saying he needs volunteers to go on a journey with him to stop the future from having a technological apocalypse.
Based on how the man is dressed and looks, with a scraggly beard, dirty complexion, and war-torn eyes while rocking a shower curtain trench coat and being strapped with what looks like a bomb, is this man for real, or is he just a deranged homeless man? We quickly learn that this man is really from the future, and we believe it because of the performance by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell is a firecracker. He grabs our attention as soon as he enters Norm’s. He speaks a mile a minute, giving us insight into what the future is like, which is a dystopia that was crushed by artificial intelligence, started by one child who he wants to destroy before the AI can be created. At first it sounds likes a futuristic tale being told by a crazy man, but when the man starts naming patrons in the restaurant, calling out their actions before they do them, and even claiming he knows what would happen to some of them because he had been in this scenario 117 times, each time failing, you are convinced that this man has done this before.
After much deliberation, The Man from the Future establishes his team, which includes a mother who recently lost her son in a school shooting (Juno Temple), a pair of high school teachers (Michael Pena and Zazie Beets) who have basically given up trying to get the attention of their high school students because they are always scrolling on their phones, and Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), a woman who just got out of a relationship, and who is also allergic to the internet and wi-fi, and a few others. They join The Man from the Future on a chaotic and thrilling journey through the streets of suburban Los Angeles to stop an AI apocalypse from happening.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die doesn’t open with establishing its characters or the story. It’s a shotgun start that asks you to be on board immediately. Much like the characters The Man from the Future recruits, you’re either in or you’re out after the first scene. You decide whether you want to go on the journey with The Man from the Future and his crew of random L.A. citizens. It’s like being woken up with a bucket of ice water being thrown on you. You’re confused and surprised, but luckily, that bucket was thrown by Rockwell, whose performance is so captivating and convincing that you can’t help but want to join him and see if he’s telling the truth or if he’s a crazy person.
Screenwriter Matthew Robinson has a lot on his mind about the modern world and where he sees it going, touching on issues from AI, technological reliance, the casualness of school shootings, and the lack of human connection. It’s a lot to take in, and some of the messaging gets lost, but the overall cautionary tale is relevant for the time we live in. And despite all these heavy themes, director Gore Verbinski made one hell of an entertaining sci-fi epic. It features great action sequences that are both thrilling and hilarious, and he keeps the energy going throughout, culminating in an epic finale.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a big-swinging sci-fi epic we rarely see nowadays, and while it gets messy at points, it’s still a rip-roaring and exciting film led by a sensational Sam Rockwell and skillful direction by Verbinski.
Follow Kevflix on Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd, @kevflix, and Facebook by searching Kevflix.
