Sam Rockwell is an entertaining ringleader in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, an imaginative and wacky sci-fi of great ideas and commentary that at times gets lost in Gore Verbinski’s busy filmmaking.
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a timely film that taps into societies fascination and fear of artificial intelligence as all matter of AI programs become part of the perpetually online experience. Understandably cynical in its commentary, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die can feel like a doomsday message monger in the form of a movie. Regardless, it is a treat to watch an original sci-fi movie that has something to say as opposed to something to sell.
Sam Rockwell star in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die as “The Man from the Future”, a time-traveller from a post-apocalypse world who storms into a diner with a declaration of war against an upcoming AI threat and a plea for volunteers to join him in his (117th attempted) mission to stop the 9-year-old god-boy responsible. With his new team of cohorts in tow (played by the likes of Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson and Michael Pena), this Man from the Future tries to stay one-step ahead of the numerous dangers sent to stop him.
Directed and produced by Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean) and written by Matthew Robinson (Love and Monsters) there is a lot to like with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Sam Rockwell is especially good as The Man From the Future, a prophet/warrior who looks like Grizzly Adams by way of 12 Monkeys and delivers the films best dialogue with grandstanding aplomb. It’s exactly the kind of “keep them in their seats” performances in such a surreal and at times dark movie.
When Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die falters is in the films’ 2 hour and 14 minutes runtime. Verbinski has long faced criticism for how long his films run and Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die similarly finds itself bogged down by too much story and not enough cuts. A sub-plot involving Juno Temple’s character grieving her sons’ death in a school shooting – and all the commentary that comes with it – feels out of place and is a distraction from the films’ central message and plot.
For a film that warns of the dangers surrounding too much time watching screens, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die should have taken its own advice and cutback its runtime. Yet as an original sci-fi made for the big screen, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die provides much food for thought and has fun while doing so.
