Good Fortune brings us Keanu Reeves (Constantine) as guardian angel Gabriel, whose job it is to stop humans from having an accident due to texting while driving.
Yes, that’s a job. But for him, it’s not that satisfying, thus, he tells his boss, Martha (Sandra Oh) – with several angels under her employ, and each with their own specific directives – how he wants to up the ante by to find a lost soul to save, even though it’s outside of his current remit.
Meanwhile, Arj (Aziz Ansari) hates his job… but then who doesn’t? That said, for him, he works in the ‘gig economy’ for an Airtasker-type company, doing crappy jobs for other people and being paid by the hour, but it can result in situations where you’re standing in a two-hour queue for a sought-after product, only to find they run out, the client cancels and not only do you only get given a one-star rating for something that’s not your fault, but you don’t even get paid!
Plus, even that job is at risk from delivery droids, from a company called… “Zamago”, borrowing Amazon’s logo in that middle of that name.
Hence, when Arj ends up working as an assistant for ‘tech bro’ Jeff (Seth Rogen – The Studio), who’s insanely rich, it should be a no-brainer just to have them swap over for a while, so Arj can see that having money is not all it’s cracked up to be, rather making Gabriel like a ‘Ghost of Christmas Future’, where he shows Arj what his life would be like with all of Jeff’s money and worldly goods…
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Martha: “Why did you do this?!”
Gabriel: “I tried to show him that wealth wouldn’t solve all his problems”
Martha: “And?”
Gabriel: “It seems to have solved most of his problems”
Throw in a subplot to eek out the running time, as the ‘poor’ Arj dates Hardware Heaven colleague Elena (Keke Palmer), and a personal annoyance as Arj works for Jeff, yet while wearing outdoor shoes INDOORS! and we have a film that’s a bit like Trading Places meets Freakier Friday, but which plays way too straight a bat, and feels quite flat after the premise is set out.
Hence, apart from the occasional laugh, Good Fortune is nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is. Even Keanu’s ‘straight man’ routine is amusing at first, but tires the more it goes on. You could just watch the trailer (below) and see all the good lines.
So, while this Aziz Ansari vehicle loses a wheel in each of the second and third acts, collapsing in the street, still, kudos and a big promotion to whoever chose for the end credits music, the ’80s little-heard classic, Send Me An Angel by Real Life (above), even if they do cut the intro in half, but I can understand they want to get to the lyrics more quickly, but it is annoying to a fan of that song like me.
NOTE: There’s no mid- or post-credits scenes.
Good Fortune is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 98 minutes
Release date: October 17th 2025
Studio: Lionsgate
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 (ARRIRAW (4.6K))
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 5/10
Director: Aziz Ansari
Producers: Aziz Ansari, Brady Fujikawa, Jon Humphrey, Anthony Katagas, Alan Yang
Screenplay: Aziz Ansari
Music: Carter Burwell
Cast:
Gabriel: Keanu Reeves
Arj: Aziz Ansari
Jeff: Seth Rogen
Elena: Keke Palmer
Rosa: Blanca Araceli
Joe: Joe Mande
Navid: Aditya Geddada
Arnold: Alexander Jo
There Will be Buns Employee: Kristen Henley
Saleem: Shoukath Ansari
Martha: Sandra Oh
Azrael: Stephen McKinley Henderson
Security Guard: Erik Estrada
Leonard: Wil Sylvince
Shabier: Michael Arnold
Cam: Cam Barr
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.