Consider it somewhat fortunate to have ‘Good Luck’
Welcome back, Gore Verbinski! We hardly knew how much we missed you and your gift for directing insanely quirky movies, a la the first “Pirates of the Caribbean,” that so flawlessly blend action and laughs. But like a phoenix, the “Rango” Oscar-winner has risen from the ashes of his two most recent disasters – “The Lone Ranger” and “A Cure for Wellness” – to make a somewhat triumphant return to respectability with the wildly uneven, yet mostly entertaining, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.”
In ending his not-necessarily-self-imposed nine-year exile, Verbinski does what he does best by creating a genuinely insane central character, think Captain Jack Sparrow, to ground the mayhem when circumstances reach psychotic proportions. In this instance, that would be Sam Rockwell’s snarky, nameless time traveler who has returned to modern-day L.A. to head off an A.I. revolution that will wreak havoc on future generations.
I know, it’s a blatant ripoff of Arnold’s “Terminator” persona. But that’s only half of it. Scenarist Matthew Robinson (“Dora and the Lost City of Gold”) also borrows elements of “Lost” and “Groundhog Day.” But the results are a story that’s nothing quite like anything you’ve seen before. And that’s both a good and bad thing, with the former narrowly edging out the latter.
The film begins quietly on a rainy night in L.A. The scene is a Norms restaurant in West Hollywood, where the noses of about 90 percent of the clientele are buried in their cell phones, oblivious to all around them. That is, until Rockwell, stealing his look from Robin Williams’s hobo in “The Fisher King,” hops atop a table (aping Tim Roth at the beginning of “Pulp Fiction”), demanding everyone’s attention. Natch, no one can be bothered to look up from their phones. But, eventually, they do, many after the visitor reveals that he has a bomb strapped to his torso. Yeah, that will do it.
In truth, it’s not an explosive. It’s his transporter, which is counting down via a digital clock on his wrist. If, within the allotted time, he fails to stop a 9-year-old boy from inventing the software that will doom our heirs, the visitor will have no choice but to start all over. But on this, his 117th go-round, he just might get it right.
In order to fulfill his mission, he’ll need seven of the Norms patrons as assistants. Having done this 116 times prior, the visitor, sporting a filthy, clear-plastic trench coat and what looks like a thorny wool cap, has a good idea of who he does and doesn’t want aboard.
Some, like Scott (Asim Chaudhry), a temperamental Uber driver; Marie (Georgia Goodman), a lonely heart who came in just for a slice of pie, and Bob (Daniel Barnett), a pistol-packing Scout leader, are regulars on these expeditions. But it’s the four newbies – high school teachers Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beets), single mom, Susan (Juno Tempo), and children’s birthday party princess for hire, Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) – who just might push the ball past the goal.
They also rate having their individual backstories told in periodic “Lost”-like flashbacks that just happen to be the movie’s most engaging moments. It’s the in-between that proves hit or miss, as the gang negotiates an obstacle course of deterents, from physical barriers to relentless hitmen in pig masks to an attack by a 50-foot house cat.
There’s not much rhyme or reason to much of it. And it’s somewhat disingenuous for Verbinski and his bevy of special effects wizards to heavily rely on computer-generated tricks to convey how technology is such a terrible thing. Self-awareness is definitely not the film’s strong suit. What is, as I mentioned is the four flashbacks.
The first involves Janet, a high school instructor, and her sorta boyfriend, Mark, a skittish substitute English teacher on his first day in front of a class of teenagers more interested in their phones than in what he has to say about “Anna Karenina.” “Did they make a movie of it?” asks one braindead pupil, hoping to watch it instead of reading it. “I found it,” says another after consulting Google. “But it’s like a million years old.” A female student verifies, adding, “Yeah, it has Keira Knightley in it.”
Frustrated yet hypnotized by what he’s seeing on a girl’s phone, Mark can’t help but touch the screen, a faux pas that causes everyone’s device to suddenly go blank, except for a revolving pyramid. In a snap, this transgression transforms every teen into a zombie seeking the culprit, leaving Mark and Janet no choice but to flee for their lives.
Next up is Susan, and Temple’s acting in this segment is utterly heartbreaking. It involves a school shooting in which the mothers of the victims aren’t the least bit grief-stricken. Rather, they are more upset by the ensuing traffic jam caused by the rampage. Susan is appalled until she learns that the reason for their relaxed state is knowing there’s a company capable of cloning their dead kids. Often, more than once, because, as one mom notes, there’s the distinct probability they could die again in another school shooting.
The film also uses this minor miracle to poke flippant fun at Prime Video’s annoying ad breaks, offering parents the option to replicate their children at a slightly higher cost if they don’t want the clone to periodically spout incessant endorsements for products such as colas and fruit-flavored teas. How and why is this funny? It just is, and credit that to the ballsiness of Verbinski and Robinson to take a swipe at the NRA and politicians who couch school shootings as a mere cost of doing business.
Ingrid’s tale of woe is nowhere as tragic as that of Susan, but her dislike for technology is no less intense. In some ways, it’s worse, given how these electronics trigger severe nosebleeds when she gets too close. This becomes a problem as more and more kids attend parties clutching their phones. Is that blood dripping on the birthday cake?
Her despair is immense, until the day Tim (Tom Tyler), her goof in shining denim, rides into her life upon his pizza-delivery scooter. He shares her dislike of gadgets, opening the path to happiness – before a VR headset arrives via an unknown sender. Will this mean game over?
Last up is the visitor himself. We meet him as a child (Teddy Holton-Frances) living off the grid with his mother, who fills his head with dreams of the day when the apocalyptic smog will lift long enough for them to witness a sunrise. And while he waits, he sketches what he thinks one will look like. Of course, A.I. could imagine it for him, but he and his mother refuse to be enticed by the allure of its instant gratification.
Or, as the visitor summarizes, “A.I. will give you everything you want: constant distraction, memorable characters, challenges and obstacles to overcome, exciting stakes that matter, and a satisfying ending. But in the end, it will all be a lie.” Bleak, but not far from the truth.
All the vignettes are highly affecting. They are also exceedingly well-acted. Which makes it a bit of a let-down each time we return to the less inspired machinations of the visitor’s attempt to reach his objective. And, by the way, is what we’re witnessing even real? There are signs it might well be a video game within a video game, particularly during the protracted third act, when Verbinski resorts to mindless, arcade-style violence involving scary robots and power cords that wrap around victims like lethal tentacles.
It’s visually stunning, but narratively empty. As is a last-minute twist depicting what’s meant to be a poignant connection between the visitor and one of his minions. But for most of its extravagant two-plus-hour runtime, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” yields a wonky bit of enjoyment. But is it enough to forgive Verbinski for directing “The Lone Ranger”?
Not a chance. But at a time when Hollywood is using the fortnight of the Winter Olympics to dump odd ducks like this and the equally diverting “Cold Storage” into theaters, you could do a lot worse. Just don’t expect Jeff, Mark, Elon, and the other tech oligarchs lording over us to join in. For them, Verbinski’s cathartic pasquinade is unlikely to compute.
Movie review
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Rated: R for language
Cast: Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Michael Pena, Zazie Beets and Asim Chaudhry
Director: Gore Verbinski
Writer: Matthew Robinson
Runtime: 134 minutes
Where: In theaters Feb. 13
Grade: B-
