Logan Lucky Review
Brings Southern Charm & humor to the classic heist film, but loses itself in its complexity
Heist movies usually tend to feature a group of people who are trying to steal from the wealthy elite. However, the people executing the heist tend to be well-educated and use advanced technology and skills to complete their task. Logan Lucky is a very refreshing change of pace in the heist genre. It basically is a redneck version of the Ocean's franchise/
Plot
Channing Tatum and Adam Driver play two brothers who organize a heist to steal a lot of money during a very popular NASCAR race. Tatum wants to get enough money where he can provide for his daughter and prove his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) that he can be a good dad. The two brothers are also part of a family who, in their small town, are known for having exceptionally bad luck. For this heist, they recruit their sister (Riley Keough), a skilled prisoner named Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), and Joe Bang's oblivious brothers (Jack Quaid & Brian Gleeson). Once the day of the heist arrives, chaos ensues.
Characters
Tatum and Driver had excellent chemistry in this movie. Tatum is definitely the brains of the two of them. He is much smarter than people give him credit for, and he uses his charisma to get people to like him. However, Driver gives a very interesting performance in this movie. He delivers his lines with a deadpan tone, but he still has emotion in his character. It's almost as though his emotionless performance makes his character more endearing. He is a very simple-minded person, but he is very cunning.
Katie Holmes plays Tatum's ex-wife and she does a pretty good job in this movie, however, her accent could have been a bit better. Riley Keough also is good as the sister of Tatum and Driver. She is sort of the voice of reason between the two and tries her best to help out with her brothers. I think the character who steals the show is Daniel Craig as Joe Bang. He has a very flamboyant and spontaneous personality that makes his character very enjoyable. Craig also speaks with a very, high-pitched southern accent that makes his character very odd.
The two characters who didn't really work for me were Hilary Swank and Seth MacFarlane's characters. Swank plays an FBI agent who comes in towards the end of the film but her character felt very unnecessary. The FBI plot at the end felt very forced into the movie and Swank herself was over the top. She had this strange voice that just didn't work for me. MacFarlane plays a British race car driver who basically makes fun of the hicks who live in this small town and he was also just way too over the top. He wasn't very funny and it just didn't really fit with the overall tone of the movie.
Direction
Steven Soderbergh has come back from "retirement" to direct this movie and it is well directed. I like they way that the movie is structured. It shows the actual heist, but then later on in the movie, it shows what actually happened that Soderbergh didn't show us during the actual heist. It was a nice touch to find out the actual details along with the other characters in the movie.
One problem I did have with this movie though is that the movie took a while to end. Like I said earlier about Swank's character, the FBI stuff towards the end felt very forced and it lasted for a while. I knew where the movie was going, but it took way too long to get there. It could have ended like 20 minutes before it actually did.
Final Thoughts
Overall, this is an entertaining movie that unfortunately gets a bit lost in its complexity. The plot of this movie is very simple and it has great characters, but the plot is much more convoluted than it needs to be. It also is a bit longer than it needs to be. However, I did enjoy the heist and the characters who were involved with the heist. It can feel a bit bloated, but its still an entertaining ride.
Rating: 7/10
