MOVIE REVIEW: Logan Lucky

Steven Soderbergh returns behind the camera to bring what has to be the most enjoyable movie of the summer.Â Two brothers whose family seems to have a bad luck curse upon it decide to change their lot in life by robbing a local speedway course.Â They need help from a prisoner who will still be locked up at the time they want to do the robbery, so they have to break him out, without the prison knowing that he’s left.

A lot of people complained when the retired director Soderbergh returned behind the camera to direct this.Â The phrase “I knew he wouldn’t stay away!”“ said with that cocky insider knowledge from people who don’t even take a photo with their phone was said so much I wanted to vomit all over the person who said it.Â But I understand it more than most.Â The amount of times I’ve said I’m walking away from writing and writing comics in particular is at least once a year, but I always come back.Â Some, very very few people, are thankful that I’ve come back and I think that after seeing Logan Lucky a lot of people will be happy that Soderbergh has come back to film.Â I’m not a massive fan of his work prior to this, I don’t hate it, just find it a little bit self-important.

Logan Lucky keeps the film grounded and at the start of the film you don’t know where it’s going, with Channing Tatum playing Jimmy Logan, a down on his luck divorced dad trying to make his way after a football injury destroyed his hopes of stardom.Â His brother, Clyde, is a veteran who lost his arm in an accident, is a bartender in a dive bar, and once a certain vegetable is mentioned he goes right ahead and follows his brother into the crime caper that is going to follow.Â Katie Holmes plays the Mother of Jimmy’s child, now with a more successful man and about to leave the town they all live in.Â Jimmy’s motivation to rob the speedway is to hire a lawyer so that he can keep his daughter close to him.

The best performance in a bunch of hugely impressive performances, apart from Hilary Swank who just annoyed me, is Daniel Craig.Â Now unpopular opinion being expressed here, I don’t like Craig as Bond, I think he’s a hugely talented performer and here he proves that he’s more than the 007 mantle that pays the bills.Â He plays Joe Bang the explosive expert, a total comedic and menacing role that just works perfectly in the film.Â Bravo to Daniel, I know he’s been waiting on that appreciation from me, and now his life is complete.

The rest of this impressive cast, that Soderbergh has the great ability to bring together, just blend seamlessly into their roles.Â Some play their roles straight like Riley Keough, and others like Seth MacFarlane play for cartoon comedic effect, but every single member of the cast make this a great film.

The film lags like most in the middle but not to the point where you lose interest in the characters or their plots.Â Also a few people may be confused by the ending of the film and I can just say that it made perfect sense to me, but I do, honestly I do, understand why people will get confused by the complicated and yet logical conclusion to the film.

I laughed through this, I cheered on the Hillbilly idiocy that surrounded the whole plan that dumb luck let them get away with.Â I loved this film and it’s one of my films of the year.Â This is not a classic summer movie and yet when I look back on the 2017 summer season I will think of Logan Lucky as the highlight.Â Happily I would watch this film time and time again, you’ll love it in the cinema and then buy the DVD or BluRay’s and stick it on after a bad day in work and it will just cheer you up.Â May your retirement not continue if this is what you are going to give us Mr. Soderbergh.

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