Logan Lucky is rather an odd title, and doesn’t trip off the tongue as well as ‘Lucky Logan’ would’ve done, but then how much luck is in store for anyone in this movie remains to be seen.
Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is fired from a construction site, due to having been seen limping a bit, since if he’s not fit for the job, then it’s going to be an insurance nightmare for his boss. However, that doesn’t help pay the bills for him and his ever-demanding ex-wife and daughter, the latter of whom is entering a beauty pageant.
With money being tight for him and his one-armed bartender brother Clyde (Adam Driver), the former has drawn up a list of “Dos and Don’ts” for robbing a bank, although their ‘bank’ is actually the local race track on a day that’ll rake in a ton of money. To assist with the task, they’ll need to seek the help of explosives expert and banged-up convict Joe Bang, played by Daniel Craig – although listed in the credits, in one of the movie’s few amusing moments, as ‘Introducting Daniel Craig’.
When I saw the trailer, Logan Lucky came across as a high-octane crime comedy – particularly with the ‘computer whizz’ character, so imagine my disappointment when it was taking forever to get started, then never seemed to get moving beyond that. In fact, just check out the trailer below, as it’ll save you two hours of your life which you won’t otherwise get back.
Neither Tatum nor Driver feel like they’re putting in any effort, here, so it’s left to Craig to spice things up, and he’s very entertaining when he’s onscreen, but outside of everything that was shown in the trailer, there’s little extra to get excited about. Plus, there’s a sub-plot between Tatum and Alien Covenant’s Katherine Waterston, as nurse Sylvia Harrison, that just eats up 10-15 additional, unnecessary minutes. In fact, it’s just so damn plodding as a whole, feeling like it takes about 20 minutes before it gets going… sort-of.
As a result, there’s possibly a reasonable 75-minute film in this – perhaps a great 60-minute film, but it goes on for one minute short of two hours and has a pointless go-nowhere plot addition from two FBI agents looking into the crime, Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank) and Brad Noonan (Blue Ruin‘s Macon Blair).
And I didn’t realise until I saw this film that – according to this film, at least – Rihanna’s hit song Umbrella actually refers to her vagina. Is that actually true?
Logan Lucky is available to pre-order on Blu-ray, Amazon Prime and DVD, and click on the poster for the full-size version.
Detailed specs:
Cert:
Running time: 119 minutes
Studio: Studiocanal
Cinema: Odeon, Trafford Centre
Year: 2017
Format: 2.35:1 (Dolby Vision)
Released: August 25th 2017
Rating: 3/10
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Producers: Reid Carolin, Gregory Jacobs, Mark Johnson and Channing Tatum
Screenplay: Rebecca Blunt
Music: David Holmes
Cast:
Jimmy Logan: Channing Tatum
Clyde Logan: Adam Driver
Joe Bang: Daniel Craig
Fish Bang: Jack Quaid
Sam Bang: Brian Gleeson
Sadie Logan: Farrah Mackenzie
Cal: Jim O’Heir
Mellie Logan: Riley Keough
Purple Lady: Rebecca Koon
Bobbie Jo Chapman: Katie Holmes
Max Chilblain: Seth MacFarlane
Max’s Non-Tourage #1: Alex Ross
Max’s Non-Tourage #2: Tom Archdeacon
Sylvia Harrison: Katherine Waterston
Sylvia’s Colleague: Lauren Revard
Special Agent Sarah Grayson: Hilary Swank
Special Agent Brad Noonan: Macon Blair
Dylan Chapman: Boden Johnston
Levi Chapman: Sutton Johnston
Moody Chapman: David Denman
Earl: Charles Halford
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.