By Mac Spain
Logan Lucky boasts an all-star cast including the likes of Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig and even Seth MacFarlane pops up sticking out like a sore thumb. After 2013’s Behind the Candelabra, Ocean’s trilogy director Steven Soderbergh said that he would be stepping down from directing films. Mostly because he really felt as though Hollywood was taking the power away from filmmakers. Soderbergh found himself getting involved with TV for a while, but Logan Lucky marks his return to feature filmmaking and it’s something of a huge gamble for him as he’s chosen to independently distribute this movie.
To my knowledge it’s performed fairly well for itself at the box office, the screening I went to certainly had a fair few seats filled, so it’ll be interesting to see if any more filmmakers follow by Soderbergh’s example in future. In a time where big budget studio movies overrun our cinemas like the plague, this could be just the sort of thing we need to save us from the barrage of sequels, prequels, reboots and cinematic universes. So when it comes to the way Soderbergh went about distributing this film, I have nothing but tremendous respect for the man. But when it comes to the film itself? Not so much…
Logan Lucky tells the story of two brothers who attempt to pull off a heist during a NASCAR race in North Carolina. Unfortunately, it never manages to be anything more than your average heist movie with a dash of comic relief. If you’ve seen any of the trailers then I’m sad to inform you that you’ve already seen a lot of the best bits. It’s nowhere near as funny as you might think and what little humour there is comes across in a kind of Coen brothers fashion. A lot of the film felt like it could have come from the minds of Ethan and Joel Coen and if it did then the film probably would have been all the better for it.
Joe Bang played by Daniel Craig was probably my favourite character, mostly because I’ve become so used to seeing Craig as this smooth operator, whereas Joe Bang seemed like entirely the opposite. I have to say though that a lot of the characters, including the two brothers, I really didn’t feel anything for. Logan Lucky just isn’t that compelling if I’m honest, it can be amusing and at times oddly charming, but memorable it is not. Going to see Soderbergh’s latest certainly isn’t the worst way to spend your hard earned, especially if you’re a fan of his work, but at the same time, I wouldn’t say it’s worth rushing out for. 6/10
