Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die
Starring Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Zazie Beetz
Directed by Gore Verbinski
At a small diner in Los Angeles, an unnamed man (Sam Rockwell) enters dressed like a crazy person and rants that he's from the future and a certain group of people in that diner will help him stop the A.I. uprising that night. He seems to have done this before, as he knows the patrons by heart, but every time he's come back something happens that fails his mission. This time, however, he feels lucky as a new team is formed and they embark on their ultimate adventure.
The team consists of teachers Janet (Zazie Beetz) and Mark (Michael Pena) who have already seen the horrors of A.I. firsthand as their students are literal zombies to their phones. Susan (Juno Temple) is a single mother who endures the hardest event imaginable when her son is killed by a school shooter, but is told there's a way to bring him back through cloning. Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) has a traumatic connection with technology as she's literally allergic to WiFi and electronic devices. Together they seem the perfect team to combat the A.I. menace, and even if they don't, the man keeps his hand on the trigger of a time machine that'll send him back to try it all over again.
I've been notorious for my disdain when it comes to comedy movies, because I feel the majority of them are lazily written and treats the audience like morons, thinking throwing in crude jokes here and there will be enough to sustain the viewers into hilarious laughing fits. It hardly ever works. Yet when a comedy has a story to tell, with rich, fully developed characters, and treats the audience like they're intelligent beings, it marks a rare moment where it actually works. "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" is not just a comedic tour-de-force, but it's a stellar action movie, a decent horror, and even has some strong dramatic moments that blends together so well that it should be applauded - if not also for the fact that it's an original IP in a cinematic world surrounded by soulless, nearly A.I. driven IPs of their own.
The underlying message in this movie is the dangers of A.I., and as I said earlier it's a very timely message. The world is teetering on the edge of the A.I. revolution, and if we're not careful it'll totally make us obsolete, turning us against one another and using our weaknesses against us. Here, the man is tasked with uploading a security protocol that'll secure the A.I. - he's not out to stop it, just make it so it won't bring about the Armageddon in his world. It's unique that this movie doesn't set out to destroy A.I. because we all know in the real world that'll be impossible, but provide a way that won't make it our eventual overlords. Sam Rockwell is perfect for the role as he epitomizes crazy but also oddly sane, playing the character that we all see on the roadside: the crazed doomsday exclaimer. It's no wonder the people in the diner don't believe him - would you? Yet Rockwell gives an effortless charm that eventually draws people to him, and the result is a night of hilarity, bloody violence, and hopefully the salvation of mankind...or not, because as he says himself, "It's gonna be okay! Or it's not, I don't know."
The supporting characters all have their moments to shine in flashbacks that are scattered throughout the film, allowing us some breathing room from the main story to focus on their own tales as to why they're on this journey as well. Generally storytelling like this breaks the pacing of the movie, but they're done so well it doesn't feel that way. It also adds to the 134 minute runtime that might deter people from seeing it, but the movie moves at such a fast pace it doesn't feel like it's that long.
The side characters include Zazie Beetz and Michael Pena, who have their own horror story as teachers trying to teach students who are glued to their cell phones, an issue teachers face on a day-to-day basis. Yet this is heightened when Pena's Mark touches one of the students' phones, sending the entire school into a frenzy. Juno Temple's Susan endures the loss of her son but it seems no one else really cares because there's a way to bring him back using cloning techniques that seem almost commonplace but is so out of left field it serves as the most comedic story of the movie. Haley Lu Richardson's story is more complex, as she suffers a disease that makes her allergic to technology and WiFi, leading to her boyfriend's downward spiral into virtual reality. Again, all these characters have a reason to hate A.I., and their personalities blend very well together, leading to a great ensemble feel.
A great comedy will let your guard down to tell a compelling story, and that's exactly what "Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die" does - it lulls you into a sense of security as you laugh along with the characters on screen, but deep down there's an important message - A.I. is dangerously hollow on every level, seeking to replicate human experience by eliminating the messiness of being human. This is one of those movies that needs to be seen multiple times and is also hard to fully explain - a movie that needs to be seen to be believed.
The Score: A+
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