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| Why the four stars are in B/W while sitting on a strikingly yellow race-car on this poster for Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky is a mystery |
Jimmy Logan is a good guy, who gets laid off from his low-paying construction job and cooks up a plan to rob the local NASCAR race with the help of his Iraq veteran bartender brother, their sister Mellie and the incarcerated demolition expert Joe Bang. - But can they break the 'Logan curse' of bad luck?
Logan Lucky is the 27th feature from Georgian master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (Haywire (2011)). It is written by the mysterious Rebecca Blunt, who seems to be an non-existing person, a pseudonym, possibly for Soderbergh himself. The film marks Soderbergh's return to feature-directing, which he had announced he was retiring from after Behind the Candelabra (2013, TV-movie). He didn't really retire, though: He directed The Knick (2014-15) and is now back behind a feature release.
Logan Lucky is a heist or a caper comedy and thus an extension of Soderbergh's biggest hits yet, his Ocean's movies, Ocean's Eleven (2001), Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). But this film is also almost antithetical to those films, in that it revolves in the Southern 'home-land' area of the US without any hints of glamour or international prestige and portrays a coup that's carried out by some down-on-their-luck country types. There are hicks, (especially Joe Bang's not too bright brothers), and the film delights sardonically in the cultural activities of its North Carolina characters.
Logan Lucky thrives on a slow pace that's inferred by its characters and setting, but this also robs it of any kind of suspense, which is a shame. Soderbergh, who has also photographed and edited the film himself, relishes the hillbilly quality to the point where he denies his heist film suspense, and that leaves it up to humor and drama to buoy it. The film has humor, and especially Daniel Craig (Spectre (2015)) is enjoyable, immersed completely in the odd Joe Bang character, but it isn't funny or dramatic enough to make up for its slowness overall. Especially not when seen in the context of Soderbergh's usually snappy and very exciting films.
Channing Tatum (The Dilemma (2011)) make women and men swoon over him again in this good guy role as Jimmy Logan, and he shares the film's best scenes with Farrah Mackenzie (You Get Me (2017)), who is really sweet as his daughter. SPOILER When she leaves Rihanna alone and decides to go for Take Me Home, Country Roads at the talent section of her beauty pageant performance, because her father finally shows up, she really steals our hearts.
The film has quite a cast, which also boasts Hilary Swank (The Black Dahlia (2006)), LeAnn Rimes (Good Intentions (2010)) singing beautifully, Dwight Yoakam (Under the Dome (2014, TV-series) as the stubborn, amusing warden with the George R.R. Martin-obsessed inmates, Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy (1998-17)) unsurprisingly apt at playing an intolerable douche, Adam Driver (Paterson (2016)), Katie Holmes (The Extra Man (2010)) and Riley Keough (It Comes at Night (2017)).
Logan Lucky is a pretty good time, and Soderbergh can only thank himself and his many previous great films for having set the bar generally higher than this.
Related posts:
Steven Soderbergh: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Magic Mike XXL (2015) - Lots of fun and skin but still no gay as Mike goes to the convention (cinematographer, editor)
2013 in films - according to Film Excess
Side Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance
Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
Contagion (2011) - Soderbergh's global pandemic creep-out
Haywire (2011) - Soderbergh's taut, stylish ensemble actioner is a masterpiece
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
The Informant! (2009) - Soderbergh and Damon's terrific true-crime dramedy
Che Part One - The Argentine (2008) - Soderbergh's sober depiction of the Cuban revolution
Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark
Erin Brockovich (2000) - Roberts, Soderbergh and Grant's triumphant biopic
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 29 mil. $
Box office: 39.6 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Logan Lucky premiered 7 August (Tel Aviv) and runs 119 minutes. Michael Shannon and Matt Damon were in talks to star before the cast came together. Only Soderbergh and Driver have vouched that Blunt exists. Soderbergh has called Logan Lucky an "anti-glam version of an Ocean's movie." Filming took place in Georgia and North Carolina from August 2016 - ?. Soderbergh has financed the film with presales to foreign markets and kept a close control of domestic distribution, steering clear of the major studios. He has said that with this tactic, the film would be 'a win' with a 'modest 15 mil. $ opening'. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release The Hitman's Bodyguard and holdover hit Annabelle: Creation, to a weak 7.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent two more weeks in the top 5 (both at #5) and has grossed 26.9 mil. $ to date. The film has yet to open in big markets Spain (12 October), France (25 October) and Japan (18 November), but so far its performance isn't impressive. Logan Lucky is certified fresh at 93 % with a 7.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Logan Lucky?
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