Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die - A Very Interesting and Enjoyable Science Fiction Comedy Movie

As the second of our movie marathon two days ago, we opted to see this unique film that I was immediately intrigued when I saw its trailer few weeks before. Though it was not a blockbuster movie, but I thought its plot was very interesting. All right then, I'll just dive into the film.

Brief Story Line

On a rather busy night at a diner in Los Angeles, a man who claimed to be from the future (Sam Rockwell - Argylle, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri etc) tried to convince some of the customers to join him in the fight to change their fate. There were several people who were either forced or volunteer to join him, such as the teachers Mark (Michael Peña - All Her Fault mini series, Fantasy Island etc) and Janet (Zazie Beetz - Bullet Train, Joker etc), single mother Susan (Juno Temple - Venom: The Last Dance, Fargo season 5 etc), young woman referred to as Princess (Haley Lu Richardson - Ponies TV series, Split etc), Scott (Asim Chaudry - People Just Do Nothing mockumentary series, The Honeymoon etc) and few others. 

The group later went on a mission that was very dangerous with unknown people trying to kill them before they completed the real task.

So what would happen to everyone and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this film.

End of Brief Story Line

Now this was a movie that was more fun that I expected. I was a bit worried at first that all the speech would lead to nothing, but turned out it was really entertaining. The speech itself was quite convincing as there were plenty of small details that were quite funny but sounded true. In addition it also touched another plot from sci-fi films that made me excited. Although it was not continuously shown, but it was enough to make the story more interesting.

The intelligent story telling was also a great factor that made this movie enjoyable. I think this was attributable to the smart writing by Matthew Robinson (writer of the critically acclaimed Love and Monsters) and directing by Gore Verbinski (Rango, the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies etc). He was able to show everything effectively from the introduction of the main plot & characters to the more detailed story of the people involved and the purpose of the mission itself. But the greatest thing to my opinion was the existence of a major shocking twist that I did not see coming, though my wife did partially guessed it. And that ending was also unexpected, although it might be disappointing if you have certain expectation.

The movie did have some action here and there but not an entirely full action kind. It has some special effects as well, though this is not the type of film that relied heavily on computer graphics. It also take aim on the extensive use of mobile phones & social media plus the increase of Artificial Intelligence and other technological advancements which might seem just for fun but actually had lots of truth in them. It has a long duration of 134 minutes including closing credits but no mid or post end credit scenes at all. Funny thing on the duration as I was worried that it might not be sufficient to cover everything, but amazingly they managed to complete what they wanted to tell in here.

The film would not have been enjoyable without the performance of Sam Rockwell as the man from future. Aside from the ones I mentioned above, there were also the appearance of Tom Taylor (The Dark Tower, House of the Dragon season 2 etc) as Ingrid's boyfriend Tim, Daniel Barnett as Bob, Georgia Goodman (The Beekeeper etc) as Marie and several others in support/minor roles. 

In the end this was a movie that might seem to take a bit of James Cameron's The Terminator plot but the way the writer & director managed to combine with other science fiction elements and the funny taunting of the technologies was excellent. It was something that I really liked and critics seemed to be of the same opinion as it was highly regarded. Audience looked to be enjoying it as well, though sadly it did not make a lot of splash when it was released in the US last month while other countries did not seem to appreciate it too much either. Nevertheless, my wife and I were entertained and we felt it was a smart film that should have been more successful. So if you are looking for a film with such attributes, I think you would enjoy it like we did. But if you are more inclined to see an explosive or full of action time travel movie, then it might not be satisfying for you. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars