Movie Review: Logan Lucky

Well, I am back. I enjoyed my just over a week vacation to sunny and humid Florida, but now I am back in San Diego and ready to return to my day-job.

Yesterday on the last day of my vacation, my sweetie-wife and I went to see Logan Lucky. This is a movie whose preview interested me but I also held not a small amount of trepidation. Hollywood has not often treated characters from the south with respect or as people with full agency but after a review on-line I was ready to give this film a go.

Channing Tatum and Adam Driver play Jimmy and Clyde Logan, two West Virginia Brothers whom have been the target of a number of life’s bad luck potshots. Jimmy lost his ticket to up when an injury destroyed his sports career and left him with employment troubles while Clyde lost his left hand while serving in Iraq. Jimmy is not a bad person but circumstances have now forced him to contemplate a heist to change his fortunes.

Lucky Logan is a heist movie. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, who helmed the rebooted Oceans’ 11 franchise, this movie has all the classic moments and tropes of the heist genre. There’s the detail planning of the theft, the assembly of the team, the seeming impossible tasks required to achieve success, and the inevitable crap hitting the fan.

The entire cast is wonderful, playing their parts with honesty and not using their accents as thick cudgels to mock these people. It must be said that Daniel Craig steals every scene that he is in. With a thick as tar North Carolina accent (And if you think that pun was by accident you do not know me) Craig plays Joe Bang, the team’s explosives expert. Sporting a crew-cut of bleached blonde hair Craig is about as far from Bond as you can imagine and carries the performance beautifully. I enjoyed Craig before he became Bone, he has been my favorite Bond, and I can’t wait to see what he does post Bond.

Logan Lucky is a fun, entertaining, and fast movie well worth the time and expense to see it in a theater, Go out there and have some fun.

 

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