BurtonReviews Logan Lucky: Wolverine, Not So Much

(Image sourced from http://schmoesknow.com/lucky-logan-international-trailers-drops/50710/)

 

After spending too much time in the Ocean, up to 13 days I heard, and afterwards a long line of surprisingly sombre and emotional takes on subjects that could have been taken in the sensational and outlandish direction, subjects such as male stripping and a virus overtaking the world, Steen Soderbergh quit directing. Well, directing films, he directed an amazing period piece medical drama set in the 1900s as surgical procedures were only just being tested and refined called the Knick, but that was a TV show, so Soderbergh stuck to his word. Well, again, until this year with the release of Logan Lucky Soderbergh returns to directing (films) after a 2 year gap. Another heist movie, but unlike his Oceans franchise, instead of classy George Clooneys behind the heist, it’s a bunch of red-neck clowns with little to no experience of blowing up vaults between them. But, just as any heist has the perfect opportune moment to strike, has Soderbergh found his perfect moment, or cocked it all up and jumped the gun?

(Video sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPzvKH8AVf0)

 

The story of Logan Lucky follows the Logan family, but unlike the title would have you believe, this family is almost cursed with the opposite and worst of all lucks. Exhibiting this the most in the opening moments of the film is Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), as like the toppling of some nasty dominos, Jimmy loses his job and finds out his ex-wife and daughter are moving out of town, making it harder for him to get his precious time with his little angel. So what’s a man in this dower situation to do? Get together with your once Sith now bartender brother Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), break out a notorious vault breaker with a more than unhinged personality, the appropriately named Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) and steal a whole bunch of cash from a vault under the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Sounds about right.

For a film that rather heavily features a huge NASCAR race, Logan Lucky is shamefully slow and plodding. Throughout the whole film Logan Lucky felt like it was missing something, a sense of urgency maybe? Something, anything to propel it into the next gear and really captivate and pull in the audience. Logan Lucky’s stalled feeling lurched in, in the opening scenes and didn’t leave my mind until the ending credits. Scenes felt too long and out drawn, nothing that was happening felt engaging and while it was on for 2 hours, it felt closer to 3 by the end as I was just waiting for something to happen that would snap me out of this induced coma of boredom and finally get me on board with this movie.

Perhaps some of the main and biggest reasons that the pacing of the film felt so slow and made the whole experience a lacklustre affair was because nothing that happened on screen felt fresh or intense. There have been a billion heist movies, stories, even games at this point, and the staleness of this premise showed in Logan Lucky. Nothing this rag-tag team of deep southern American accented everymen did left me shocked or surprised at how they were getting around the many twists and turns doing a heist would entail.

(Image sourced from http://www.indiewire.com/2017/07/logan-lucky-review-steven-soderbergh-adam-driver-channing-tatum-daniel-craig-1201859168/)

 

And it’s a heist! Yet I never felt any sense of tension for even a second of this movie, no “oh nooo he’s about to get caught”, no squeezing of the arm rests in the cinema. Instead the events of the film washed over me as I was being taken through the motions of this not so entertaining heist thriller.

And that’s really a shame because the talent Soderbergh wrangled up for this project were mainly amazing. Daniel Craig’s break from being the sly and cool spy for England to now being a deeply American heist-expert was an almost unrecognisable transformation for the actor. I had to keep reminding myself that the guy I was seeing on screen was Craig as he melted into the role so absolutely, making gags that could have been corny in other hands feel genuine to his slightly erratic and utterly bonkers character.

And on the other side of the scale, Kylo Ren’s transformation from bratty Sith-wannabe to the monotone, no muss, no fuss persona of this simple and straight forward bartender just shows Adam Driver’s versatility and range as an actor as, once again, not for a second did I see the actor in the performance, but instead just this simple and almost too calm at times, character being dragged into his brother’s crazy scheme.

(Image sourced from http://www.ikarmik.com/2017/05/logan-lucky-trailer-review-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/)

Speaking of his brother, Jimmy, played by Channing Tatum, was also a delight to watch, shifting gears from his six pack toting main-man roles he usually plays, Tatum was perfect as this average guy that was just really down on his luck. You couldn’t help but feel for the guy that was trying his best but at every corner being shut down or making an easily made mistake.

And it is through Jimmy that we see Logan Lucky’s strongest aspect, the very personal and human drama. Jimmy’s never-ending quest to remain an important part of his daughter’s life and not let her down results in the best and most effecting scene of this film that actually almost brought a tear to my eye. Forget the ‘quirky’ but ultimately by-the-books heist, it’s these emotional and relatable family moments that shine in the movie and let the actors really flex their muscles.

Well most the actors, the main cast of the movie are all great, but the secondary cast leave a lot to be desired as most range from meh, to down right annoying and bad.

(Image sourced from https://letterboxd.com/film/logan-lucky/)

 

On the annoying side we see Joe Bang’s idiot brothers: Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson). Meant to be the comedic stupid characters of the movie, they forgot to add in the comedic and just left it at stupid. Whenever they would begin to open their mouths my eyes would roll and I’d begin to actually grumble as their inability to understand how to do a single thing correctly only added a extra sense of drag to the movie’s pacing as they got in the way of story progression, and getting more times with the much more likeable and entertaining characters.

And on the bad side we see Special Agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank). I don’t know whether it was a personal acting choice or explicit direction from Soderbergh himself, but Swank’s all too forced voice as she tried to be a cool whispery gravelly voiced F B I AGENT  (Keanu Point Break reference implied) not only wasn’t funny, which is what I think they were going for, but was just irritating to hear. The whole character just seemed tonally out of place to the rest of the movie and abit too over the top and cartoony in this not too heightened world that Soderbergh has setup.

Overall, this movie was just, honestly boring. Neither the Edgar Wright-like snappy and quirky heist movie that the trailers promised, nor the interesting sombre and emotional take on an outlandish concept that Soderbergh’s most recent filmography has been. But while the pacing and events of the film left a lot to be desired, the main cast of Logan Lucky is without a doubt incredible as they each effortlessly and absolutely transformed into their roles.

Logan Lucky = 4/10

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