Some vague spoilers ahead. Fair warning.
Director: Steven Soderbergh
A fun heist movie, with a unique flavor and an attempt at something just a tad more complex than Soderbergh's "Ocean's" films, even if it doesn't quite succeed at everything it attempts.
The tale is mostly that of Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), a proud West Virginian who gets laid off from his construction job on account of his having a chronic knee problem. Jimmy needs money to help support his daughter, so he convinces his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), sister Mellie (Riley Keough) and a few others of dubious character to pull off a robbery at the nearby NASCAR racetrack during a competition.
As a heist movie, Logan Lucky hits the necessary marks. The setup is nothing new, and it doesn't hold up terribly well under scrutiny, but it serves well enough as an excuse to see if a band of misfits can actually pull off a challenging robbery. More important is that the movie, much like the "Ocean's" movies, offers clever and entertaining forms of problem solving. There's a cunning jailbreak (both out and back in), stealth, disguises, and meticulous planning all along the way. This is what any good movie of this type needs, and Logan Lucky delivers.
Much like Soderberg's "Ocean's" series, this one also has a very breezy, fun tone. This is especially evident with the characters. While there is a cursory human interest story at work between Jimmy and his cute little daughter, the proceedings never come close to getting grim or overly intense. Jimmy, his siblings, and their partners are all comic characters of one degree or another, with the most purely humorous being the demolitions expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and his uber redneck brothers. I must admit that, were I from West Virginia or the deep south, I might take exception to how people from those regions are depicted, seeing as how nearly every main character seems to be intellectually challenged in one way or another. As it was, though, there are plenty of good laughs to be had.
On the topic of mental capabilities, however, is one bone I have to pick with the movie. At nearly every step of the picture, we are shown how everyone involved in the heist, from the two goofy, younger Bang brothers up to the "mastermind" Jimmy Logan, seems to be rather slow or inept in certain ways. And yet, the entire crew does actually manage to plan and execute a rather sophisticated robbery to near-perfection. This would have been easier to accept had we been given some slight suggestion as to Jimmy's mental acuity, but this never really happens. I very much appreciate seeing a heist movie that uses a different character type, setting everything in the South, but I still need to believe that the characters actually have the skills required.
Another odd little blemish came from an extremely unexpected source - Oscar winner Hilary Swank. Swank plays F.B.I. Agent Sarah Grayson, who shows up in the last parts of the movie to try and piece together the facts of the robbery. For some strange reason, Swank's performance stood out as completely unnatural and overdone, coming off as a poor imitation of Sandra Bullock's comedically stern Agent Ashburn in The Heat. This stands out all the more when everyone else in the picture, very much including pretty boy Channing Tatum, does an excellent job. Swank is a great actress, but for whatever reason, she missed the mark on this one. It happens to the best of them, I suppose.
So this was an entertaining flick, being exactly what I had expected. It's not going to change the genre or anything quite so historic, but it is a well-made, entertaining tale that can offer some truly PG-13 fun for a couple of hours.
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| The Logan siblings - they comprise half of the sextet that attempts a heist of rather massive proportions. |
A fun heist movie, with a unique flavor and an attempt at something just a tad more complex than Soderbergh's "Ocean's" films, even if it doesn't quite succeed at everything it attempts.
The tale is mostly that of Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), a proud West Virginian who gets laid off from his construction job on account of his having a chronic knee problem. Jimmy needs money to help support his daughter, so he convinces his brother Clyde (Adam Driver), sister Mellie (Riley Keough) and a few others of dubious character to pull off a robbery at the nearby NASCAR racetrack during a competition.
As a heist movie, Logan Lucky hits the necessary marks. The setup is nothing new, and it doesn't hold up terribly well under scrutiny, but it serves well enough as an excuse to see if a band of misfits can actually pull off a challenging robbery. More important is that the movie, much like the "Ocean's" movies, offers clever and entertaining forms of problem solving. There's a cunning jailbreak (both out and back in), stealth, disguises, and meticulous planning all along the way. This is what any good movie of this type needs, and Logan Lucky delivers.
Much like Soderberg's "Ocean's" series, this one also has a very breezy, fun tone. This is especially evident with the characters. While there is a cursory human interest story at work between Jimmy and his cute little daughter, the proceedings never come close to getting grim or overly intense. Jimmy, his siblings, and their partners are all comic characters of one degree or another, with the most purely humorous being the demolitions expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and his uber redneck brothers. I must admit that, were I from West Virginia or the deep south, I might take exception to how people from those regions are depicted, seeing as how nearly every main character seems to be intellectually challenged in one way or another. As it was, though, there are plenty of good laughs to be had.
On the topic of mental capabilities, however, is one bone I have to pick with the movie. At nearly every step of the picture, we are shown how everyone involved in the heist, from the two goofy, younger Bang brothers up to the "mastermind" Jimmy Logan, seems to be rather slow or inept in certain ways. And yet, the entire crew does actually manage to plan and execute a rather sophisticated robbery to near-perfection. This would have been easier to accept had we been given some slight suggestion as to Jimmy's mental acuity, but this never really happens. I very much appreciate seeing a heist movie that uses a different character type, setting everything in the South, but I still need to believe that the characters actually have the skills required.
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| And the Bang family makes up the other half. While Daniel Craig's West Virginian drawl slips every so often, he makes up for it with a fun turn as the quirky demolitionist, Joe Bang. |
So this was an entertaining flick, being exactly what I had expected. It's not going to change the genre or anything quite so historic, but it is a well-made, entertaining tale that can offer some truly PG-13 fun for a couple of hours.
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