Logan Lucky

Logan Lucky is a new film now in theaters directed by Steven Soderbergh known from the Oceans 11, 12, and 13 movies. The formula involving detailed robberies of banks and casinos seems to be a formula that has worked for Soderbergh. Logan Lucky follows that formula in some ways but instead of high profile criminals who specialize in robbery this movie has rednecks from West Virginia working together to rob a NACAR event in Charlotte North Carolina. On the surface this would appear, as is presented in the trailers, for the film to be a rather entertaining comedy. While there are comedic moments, the laughs are few and far between and despite an incredible cast, the movie falls somewhat short in many areas and at the same time, surprisingly good in others.

The cast is quite superb in Logan Lucky. The movie features the talents of Channing Tatum as Jimmy Logan and his brother and sister are played by Adam Driver and Riley Keough. This misfit family has a history of tragedy and when Jimmy Logan, a past football hero, loses his job while working at Charlotte Motor Speedway due to a pre existing condition related to insurance costs, he decides it would be possible to rob the Speedway and get away with it. He solicits the help of Joe Bang, a prisoner at the local prison played wonderfully by Daniel Craig. This role by Craig is alone borderline worth seeing the movie for. Craig's character recognizes the need to bring in additional help so he brings in his cousins, Joe Bang and Fish Bang played by Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid. There are other notables in the film such as Seth McFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hillary Swank and many others that have star power written all around them. Unfortunately, outside of Craig, few actually deliver on their performance in quite the way one would want.

One of the things I did like about the film, other than some of the technical aspects like sound-track, and Daniel Craig was the story line between a father, Jimmy Logan played by Channing and his ex-wife Bobbie Jo Chapman played by Katie Holmes and the custody issues related to their daughter, Sadie, played by Farrah Mackenzie. So many times, especially in comedies the relationship between parents in a split marriage and their spouses is played in a devastating way, here though, you see the ex's getting along, doing what they perceive to be best for their daughter and the relationship between the new husband, Moody and old husband Logan is nice to see on screen. It is clear the dynamic of a split marriage can work if effort is made. All parties here have the best interest of the child at heart and listens to and respects the input from each other in regards to the welfare of the child.

There are other aspects I liked in Logan Lucky, the importance of working together, respecting those you love and the individual talents of each person in a particular situation. The group intending to rob the speedway recognizes the role of each other if they are going to be successful. This reminded me of a comment from Francis Chan I had heard on the same day on the importance of the church using the talents of the people in the church if they are going to be effective in carrying out the mission of the church. Just as in life, or in a place of work, team or any other concept where people work together, the theme of using each others skills, to the best of ones ability and working together is an important skill set to learn if one wants to be effective in what they are doing.

All in all, while there are some impressive aspects about Logan Lucky I liked and while a seemingly convoluted story does come together in the end, I was still disappointed. For a film with so much potential, there should have been a better story line, I felt the movie and direction had issues from the beginning. Was this to be a comedy, action film or what?  The clarity of that never happens and I left the theater thinking, it was okay, had some good moments, but all in all, was disappointed.

In a summer filled with blockbusters it will also have some flops, so on a scale from 1 - 10 for the letters in the word flops, I give a somewhat lackluster, 5.

To see the trailer for the movie, just click on the video below, if that doesn't work just click on the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPzvKH8AVf0




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