Logan Lucky is a 2017 crime/drama film directed, shot and edited by Steven Soderbergh and written by Rebecca Blunt. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston and Sebastian Stan, and follows three siblings who plan to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway during the Coca-Cola 600.
So full disclosure, I’ve been following this film for quite some time. With that in mind, this movie did let me down quite a bit. It wasn’t so much the fact that I had over hyped the film, rather it had some minor issues all over the place. Of course there were some pretty good parts to it as well, but I’ll get to that in the review.
As to what the film did well, the acting was actually fantastic. Granted some accents were pretty iffy, but Channing Tatum and Adam Driver absolutely delivered. Their characters were well fleshed out, and had a great amount of history with each other that you could almost mistake them as real brothers. What wasn’t so great was the exposition behind Tatum’s character and Riley Keough’s character as it never seemed like they explained it in the earlier parts of the film. I couldn’t tell if you were a thing until halfway through the movie when I found out she was his sister. Kinda confusing. As for the rest of the cast I thought they did a pretty good job. Even MacFarlane was bearable for the few scenes that he was in. Did I mention Craig is fantastic and the saving grace to this film? No, well there you go.
As for the story? It was alright to be honest. The thing that I found the most disappointing was the way the story revealed the twist at the end. Unlike Ocean’s Eleven, Logan Lucky waits an extremely long time before revealing the twist. Because of this I feel like the film looses its value in its surprise ending. This was probably one of the film’s weakest points, and really suffers because of it.
Another huge issue came in the form of pacing. The film had a really hard time pacing itself, and failed to engage a lot of people from the get-go because of this. While I was watching the film I continued to observe how much other were involved in the film. Sorry to say, most of the audience seemed disconnected at times where the film seemly came to an abrupt stop, as the movie didn’t provided enough active storylines to keep viewers engaged. Most of the time the film failed in this aspect strictly because of how it completed its resolutions. Instead of giving the audience what they want, the movie holds back to try and tries to build more reasons for us to doubt the success of our protagonists. Because of that the audience losses interest in the seemingly inactive buildup to our final conclusion.
As for the comedy? Kinda a let down. Now I’m not usually one to watch previews for films ever since I screened Get Out, but my god this film uses all of its best lines in the first trailer. What a waste. Sure there were a couple of memorable lines that weren’t in the trailer, but I would say the majority of comedic parts came from scenes we had already seen. This is a very bad move via the marketing team, and was the main reason why I classified this film as a crime/drama rather than a crime/comedy.
I guess that’s those are the main issues that I had with this film. As sad as it is, this movie is pretty decent but its few flaws make this movie lose a lot of value in the long run. Although I thought this film had some merit to it, it’s honestly one of those films that’s worth watching when it comes around to basic television. Although Logan Lucky has a decent story and good acting, it pacing struggles to provided a memorable ending like that of Ocean’s Eleven and other movies alike. With all that in mind I decided to give Logan Lucky an “Alright” on theVade Review Bar. The Logan curse continues from family to film, as the unlucky issues of pacing, drawn out endings, and spoiled comedic content make this a film that will have you wishing you could steal back your money and time.
