Time: 134 Minutes
Cast:
Sam Rockwell as the man from the future
Haley Lu Richardson as Ingrid
Michael Peña as Mark
Zazie Beetz as Janet
Asim Chaudhry as Scott
Tom Taylor as Tim
Juno Temple as Susan
Director: Gore Verbinski

I was interested in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, simply because it is the latest movie from Gore Verbinski, who hasn’t directed a movie since 2017’s A Cure for Wellness. I admit I didn’t like it as much as I would’ve liked and thought that it could’ve been much better, but I still enjoyed it.

This movie is first and foremost an anti AI movie, and as to be expected, there’s a lot of satire on the topic. The commentary is very overt and on the nose, certainly exaggerated and not subtle, but perhaps it benefitted from that. It is overly ambitious in trying to tackle so much, it’s not long enough to cover all of its topics, while also being too long for its own good. The commentary is also a mixed bag, it is pretty limited and one note, largely in the territory of “technology bad” that you’d see in the average Black Mirror episode. On one hand, the flashbacks to the characters played by Juno Temple and Haley Lu Richardson are effective. On the other hand, the flashback section with Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz wasn’t not good, falling into lazy “kids these days are like zombies with their phones” territory. Tonally, GLHFDD is a bit of a mess. Often the movie could be quite bleak, especially with the recent rise of generative AI. There is also a large amount of humour, ranging from dark to goofy and silly, and the comedy itself is hit or miss. To summarise what kind of movie it is, you could imagine them having the classic Portal quote “The cake is a lie” painted on the wall in the background as a random reference. I say that specifically because that’s actually in the movie. It struggles in the second act, particularly especially with its pacing. However, I think it lands things in its surprisingly nihilistic third act.

There’s quite a talented cast assembled here. While I like Sam Rockwell, I admit that in the opening scene I didn’t know how I’d feel about him. He seemed like he would be very annoying and grating. But over time, he grew on me with his crazy performance and added so much energy whenever he was on screen. Juno Temple and Haley Lu Richardson were also great and really conveyed their characters very well. On the other hand, Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz really don’t have much to work with, and were by far the weakest links of the main cast.

Gore Verbinski’s direction here does help the movie somewhat. There are some crazy and sometimes vibrant visuals, and the style could be energetic at times. However, occasionally the  visuals could be a little too dark, and some of the CGI looked a little dodgy.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a messy and overstuffed sci-fi comedy satire, with commendable (if one note) anti-ai commentary, and elevated by a solid cast and dynamic direction.