Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die (2025)
Director Gore Verbinski had a solid amount of critical and/or commercial successes from the end of the '90s through the early 2010s (the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Ring, Rango). The quality of his films can be hit or miss, but he had a refreshing willingness to often move between genres. Mousehunt and Rango are children's movies, The Ring is horror, The Weather Man is a thoughtful character study, and the Pirates movies and The Lone Ranger are blockbuster extravaganzas. He now returns from a decade's long absence with the sci-fi/comedy/action hybrid Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.
The movie opens with a man from the future (Sam Rockwell) appearing to patrons in a modern Los Angeles diner and telling them that a certain combination of them will be the right combination to help him prevent AI from taking over the world. The people he ends up choosing include a teacher couple on the rocks (Zasie Beetz and Michael Pena), an angry young woman who plays princesses at birthday parties (Haley Lu Richardson), a grieving mother (Juno Temple), and a few others.
It soon becomes clear that the group will face many life-threatening obstacles. The film's structure is almost like a flashback version of Weapons, where viewers see how individual group members got to this point in the film. There are also elements of The Terminator, Edge of Tomorrow, The Matrix, Miracle Mile, and Ghostbusters evident in the story. Despite all those influences, it still feels different. It doesn't feel like assembly-line "content."
It's a thick stew, but there is an undeniable energy and eccentricity to the film that is appealing. Some may find it too much, and it would not be surprising to see it have a lot of love-it-or-hate-it reactions. Even if it fails at the box office, it's odd and distinctive enough to attract a cult following. Rockwell is an asset. There may not be any other modern actor who can do "likable but also at least a little crazy" as well as he can.
Like a lot of Verbinski's films, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is a little shaggy with its runtime at almost 135 minutes, but it's an entertaining, original film that deserves a look in theaters.
