West Virginia family man Jimmy Logan teams up with his one-armed
brother Clyde and sister Mellie to steal money from the Charlotte
Motor Speedway in North
Carolina.
Jimmy also recruits demolition expert Joe Bang to help them break into the
track's underground system. Complications arise when a mix-up forces the crew
to pull off the heist during a popular NASCAR race while also trying to dodge a
relentless FBI agent. Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel
Craig, Katie Holmes, Riley Keough
Release Date: Aug 18, 2017
Genres: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Rated PG-13 for language and some crude
comments
Review:
Logan Lucky is a fun energetic return for Steven
Soderbergh after a 4 year “retirement.”This heist caper is like a Dixie styled
Ocean’s 11 with a good sense of fun.It
never takes itself too serious and knows how to keep the audiences attention
from waning.Soderbergh’s direction is
slick as always, resulting in a breezy film that never really feels long or
hits many dips in energy.The cast is
all fully committed with each member giving a fun if occasionally understated
performances, except for Daniel Craig who’s clearly having a ball.Most of the characters are broadly drawn but
they do their job in service of the
story.Only a handful of them feel out
of place like Seth McFarland over the top Nascar owner and Hilary Swank’s under
baked FBI agent who shows up far to late in the game to be taken seriously.Still, Logan Lucky a welcome return for
Soderbergh and his film making style.
Dearest Blog: Yesterday it was off to Marquee Cinemas for the promising pair of The Hitman's Bodyguard and Logan Lucky.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
First up: The Hitman's Bodyguard.
When a former assassin's testimony is needed at the International Criminal Court, it's up to a disgraced personal security expert to get him there safely.
The Hitman's Bodyguard is exactly as advertised, a thrilling and wildly funny action-comedy. Co-stars Ryan Reynolds and Samuel L. Jackson have as much chemistry as the best buddy-comedy pairs, easily playing off one another in hilarious fashion. Gary Oldman digs his cartoonish bad-guy schtick out of storage for a broad, accented turn reminiscent of his mid-90s meat and potatoes. He's not really in the movie as much as I'd have liked, but, as always, he puts his screen time to good use. Action is almost non-stop, though the story beneath never feels underdone. Pretty European locales and a multi-cultural cast give the film a nice international flavor. Only the final chase scene seems to drag on just a bit too long; otherwise, the movie is a perfect balance of well-crafted action and foul-mouthed comedy.
The Hitman's Bodyguard clocks in at 118 minutes and is rated R for "strong violence and language throughout."
The Hitman's Bodyguard is a rollicking end-of-summer blast. Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Hitman's Bodyguard gets eight.
Fangirl points: GARY! (Duh.)
Next on the docket: Logan Lucky.
A pair of small-town brothers attempts to rob Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Dear reader(s), I'll consider it more a warning than a spoiler to tell you one thing about Logan Lucky that you probably didn't guess from the trailer: It's not really a comedy. It's amusing at times, and the overall tone certainly isn't heavy, but it is not the laugh-riot promised by the trailer.
Logan Lucky IS a clever, well-acted yarn about a down-on-his-luck West Virginia boy (Channing Tatum) who conscripts his brother (Adam Driver) into a wild plot to rob Charlotte Motor Speedway. The brothers enlist an "in-car-cer-rated" felon (Daniel Craig, playing delightfully against type) to assist with the scheme, which obviously doesn't go entirely as planned, or there'd be no movie. The terrific cast is rounded out by Katie Holmes, Riley Keough, Seth McFarlane, Katherine Waterston, Dwight Yoakam, and Sebastian Stan in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it turn. When Logan Lucky is funny, it's really funny, but unfortunately you've already seen most of what's really funny in the trailer. The twists and turns along our would-be robbers' path are well-plotted and certainly not boring, but the movie is so unlike its advertising that the whole can't help feeling kinda dull.
Logan Lucky runs 119 minutes and is rated PG13 for "language and some crude comments."
Logan Lucky is a smartly-crafted heist picture whose impact is sadly diminished by misleading advertising.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Logan Lucky gets six.
Fangirl points: Sebastian Stan!
Also, however much it may have been intended to make fun of us, a roomful of people singing Country Roads will always put a teardrop in my eye.
