It is so refreshing to see a heist film that has a good blend of comedy, wittiness, and cleverness. Sometimes, heist movies try too hard and have too many twists and turns until it becomes a mess. Logan Lucky is the complete opposite of that. It is truly hilarious and written so well that its difficult to look away from the screen. The entire cast is great as well, making it one of the summer’s best films.
Two brothers attempt to pull off a heist during a NASCAR race in North Carolina.
Director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s trilogy) has always done a good job crafting interesting and unique characters. In Logan Lucky, he may have outdone himself. The entire cast shares equal screen time, has depth, and likability. With big names like Channing Tatum, Adam Driver,Daniel Craig, and Katie Holmes it could have been very difficult to craft each role to the point viewers care about them. Soderbergh knocked it out of the park, though. When Jimmy Logan (Tatum) and Clyde Logan (Driver) start to plan out the heist after Jimmy loses his job, you’re immediately sucked into the film. The unique writing and superb acting from Tatum and Driver makes for a fun time. It gets even better when they visit Joe Bang (Craig) in jail to plan out the heist. The dialogue is simply hilarious.
One aspect that is extremely satisfying with Logan Lucky is the pacing. From the beginning it hits the ground running and grabs your attention. There is downtime for character building as well, but it never feels boring because of how witty the writing is. The movie is right at 2 hours long, but it flies by because it’s so much fun and smart. It is quite amazing that this is the first screenplay ever for writer Rebecca Blunt. I can’t wait to see what she does next.
What makes Logan Lucky truly fantastic is that it knows what kind of movie it is and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. At times, it even pokes fun at itself. The setting is North Carolina, and a lot of the characters have a thick southern outfit that’s incredibly funny. Hearing Tatum and Driver exchange dialogue sounding super redneck made me laugh almost every time. Joe Bang also has two brothers that quietly stole many scenes. Sam Bang (Brian Gleeson) and Fish Bang (Jack Quaid) have the thickest southern accents in the film, and it is priceless. They aren’t the brightest characters either, so that makes it ever funnier.
There were only two issues I found with Logan Lucky. One of them was that it had one too many of those convenient moments for the characters that propelled the plot. This comes with the territory of a heist film, but there were two or three times where the main characters definitely should have been caught but the plot lets them slip through the cracks. I can usually forgive one or two of those moments, but in Logan Lucky there were more than a few. The other issue was that it could have ended about 3 different times. That’s a huge pet peeve of mine. When it feels like a movie should end with the jib shot of a truck driving away, then it should end there.
Overall, Logan Lucky is a fun time and very well written. The ensemble is the best I’ve seen all summer. Steven Soderbergh confidently directs another great theft film. Go check out Logan Lucky in theaters and prepare to laugh for 2 hours straight.
Rating: [star rating=”4.5″]