Logan Lucky

“They’re going to know what we want them to know.” Logan Lucky is an inventive and humorous mix of a social drama from working-class life and a heist film, a prison-escape flick and a movie about swindling, where mainly the viewer is the one being conned. There is no traditional antagonist whom the protagonists would try to outwit. It is not until the final act that the narrative is enhanced with a character who goes for the throat of the gang around Jimmy (and who is played by an actress famous enough for you to suspect that she won’t simply give up), thanks to which the film is thrilling even after the action. Soderbergh doesn’t cut directly to the chase and, in the opening part of the film, spends a relatively long time on developing the characters and fleshing out their social environment (thus the two-hour runtime makes sense), which he puts to good use in the emotionally charged climax, when I found myself alternating between emotion, amusement and (eventually) dismay in quick succession. Thanks to meaningful “backstories”, understandable motivations and a well-chosen cast, Logan Lucky, unlike other crime comedies, doesn’t lose its persuasiveness even when it asks us to sympathise with characters who sometimes say and do strange things, but for the most part, they are not one-dimensional comedic characters and their behaviour is relatively consistent throughout the film. Even charmingly bizarre, mostly unexplained moments, such as the password “cauliflower” and the taking of a bag from the “bear’, and moments that are entertaining because they are explained in too much detail (making a bomb out of gummy bears) fit flawlessly with the poetic nature of the film. As usual, Soderbergh takes extra care to ensure that nothing that happens in the film comes across as random (without motivation). As gradually becomes apparent, the film is well thought out down to the smallest detail. Soderbergh very skilfully utilises the protagonist’s favourite song, the character of his former classmate, the fact that he doesn’t own a mobile telephone and the special “salt” that Joe Bang sprinkles on his boiled eggs. The careful composition with very clever distribution of information goes hand in hand with Soderbergh’s patient direction of individual scenes. He knows exactly when to cut (and, conversely, when to stay in one place with the camera), where to place the camera so that the shot not only tells us everything important but is also funny, and how to shoot action so that we don’t lose our bearings in the given space. Logan Lucky may appear to be a mere first-class genre movie, but it offers so many premium “services” that I have no problem giving it a full five-star rating and ranking it among this year’s most satisfying cinematic experiences. 90% (31.08.2017)

A film about a bunch of assholes, completely different from the usual Hollywood films. The Logan brothers are retarded. One is all muscles and the other one is missing a hand, so he is truly crippled. For their break-in gang they also recruit Daniel Craig, who is at the time sitting in jail with one last month of desperate staring into the wall left. However, they come up with an idea how to take him along, even though he is in jail, which gives the whole thing an absurd dimension. The film is funny at times, especially when there is a rebellion in jail because they do not have the newest volume of The Game of Thrones source book series in their library. Otherwise, it is your usual average film. For a while the absurdity reminded me of the Coen brothers’ stories, the only difference being that their characters and dialogues are way funnier than in this film. (27.01.2018)

It probably wouldn't be a good idea to go into Logan Lucky thinking you'll get a redneck version of Ocean’s Eleven, but I didn't count on that. On the other hand, the new Soderbergh film might have some of that style. Actually, probably any style. While there are a few endearingly bizarre humorous moments, Logan Lucky is far from a comedy. There's a heist, but its fairly seamless planning and execution is unlikely to excite fans of heist movies. There's some drama, too, as the protagonists have to deal with the fact that their lives are in the gutter and it's not likely to get any better, but we don't get anything groundbreaking or particularly interesting in that regard either. And what you end up with is a film that, while full of stars, fails to entertain in any of its forms. Fortunately, it doesn't bore either. (31.08.2017)

Wer würde sich denn heute nicht die aufgedunsenen Meister des Diebeshandwerkes in einem gut sitzenden Anzug anschauen ... Es ist eine white Trash Welt. Soderberghs Rückkehr mit einem weiteren Genrekurzschluss, der allerdings keineswegs der Schärfe entbehrt, obwohl es so auf den ersten Blick erscheinen könnte. Eine manisch konstruierte, absichtlich subversive, auf eine sparsame Art und Weise lächerliche Indie-Mutation des Heist-Genres, wo man die größte Anziehungskraft erwartet (Raub), jedoch dies macht der Streifen wieder dort wett, wo Ocean's Eleven völlig machtlos waren - auf sozialer Ebene. Mit der Logan-Truppe können wir nämlich in den gewöhnlichsten Dingen sympathisieren. Sobald aus dem Mund eines ekelhaft bemalten Kindes John Denvers berühmter Song ertönt, ist dies unerwarteterweise das Beste. Eine Ode an das Losertum, ein Film, welcher das pompöse amerikanische Goldgeglitzer verpönt, jedoch in gleichem Maße gegenüber Figuren aus der Peripherie einfühlsam ist ... dies ist keine vollends reibungslose Fahrt, jedoch es ist etwas, worin man sich leicht verlieben kann. Steven gibt den Hillbillies ihre Würde zurück. Nicht nur deshalb ist es gut, dass er seinen Weg zur Leinwand zurückgefunden hat. (31.08.2017)

Steven Soderberg has never convinced me with his direction, but I loved this redneck version of Ocean’s Eleven. A very entertaining and likeable film with an enjoyable cast (Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig and Hilary Swank are excellent) and quite possibly one of the most thoughtful and original heist films I've ever had the opportunity to see. There's the occasional funny scene, no shortage of tension, great chemistry between the characters and I really stared with rapt attention for the final 40 minutes. A very nice surprise, I hadn't even hoped for such satisfaction. Almost 5 stars. 85%. (16.11.2017)

An indie take on Ocean’s Eleven. It has spark, the unobtrusive elegance of the central gang with the exuberance of rednecks instead of neon, the countryside and hot babes (Riley Keough, Katie Holmes). It’s not quite a dud, but unlike the elegant version of a heist, it's less watchable and more niche for a specific target audience who will enjoy this down-to-earth setting full of mongs and lots of deliberately absurd scenes. The second half is a notch better than the first with the introductions. (03.02.2018)

A nearly perfect subversive version of Ocean’s Eleven that goes about it in a different way than you'd expect. The main characters claim to be morons, and they are not very far from it, but they find themselves in a story where everybody is a moron, so they don't have to outsmart any motherfucking big boss, which nobody would buy, but only outsmart themselves and thus the viewer. Those expecting a stylized diamond robbery with an elaborate heist will be disappointed; this is "only" a cleverly constructed narrative with its own rules, where Soderbergh humorously departs from the expected patterns and enriches the main storyline with surprising twists and themes. The only problems of the brawny bunch during the heist are neither incompetent security nor electronic defence systems, but only their own stubbornness, and the experienced director surprises the viewer even in the end, when after a quickly edited passage from the heist he switches to the expected epilogue, which both reverses the previous impression of the robbers' idiocy with a classical explanation of the unrevealed events of the plot, and introduces the character of the investigator, who, despite the lack of evidence, is not about to give up and leaves the ending relatively open (and even before that, paradoxically, dismisses the only possible witness). And why did I say it’s almost perfect? Because, as much as the whole works admirably and twists expectations beautifully, I often felt an underdevelopment from the individual motifs and especially the dialogue. If more work had been done on the verbal jokes and the ending hadn't slowed down the pace so much, I would have been thrilled. (29.11.2017)

I was going to give the film two stars but ended up adding a third one thanks to the second half. Once again, Channing Tatum failed to convince me that he's an actor. The only performance worth mentioning was Daniel Craig’s. I wasn't particularly enjoying the film until about halfway through, which is when things got slightly better, but I still felt like I I'd seen it all before (several times). (25.01.2018)

I've been quite fond of Soderbergh's films lately, but Logan Lucky didn't do it for me at all. It's shot really well, and there's an attempt to capture the Southern setting, which it did, but plot-wise I just didn't enjoy the film and I didn't relate to the individual characters. It was a bit boring for me in that regard. (03.12.2017)

For my taste, this Soderbergh movie is too long and drawn out, lacks pace and offers only very few really funny moments. Unfortunately, I was bored most of the time, not even the stellar cast could help. Maybe if Hilary Swank had been given more space, I would have spoken differently, because it was the scenes with her that caught my attention, especially the surprisingly well-pointed one at the very end. (55%) (11.10.2022)