The king of heist, Steven Soderbergh, strikes one more time.
☆☆☆☆
Written by: Marta Vezzani
Logan Lucky Review by the Drm.am team
Steven Andrew Soderbergh, known for Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) and the Ocean’s Trilogy, Contagion (2011) and Magic Mike (2012), terminates his retirement with this brilliant heist comedy about robbing a NASCAR racetrack in West Virginia, his first feature film in four years.
“LOGAN LUCKY“, written by mysterious first-timer Rebecca Blunt, is about West Virginia divorced dad Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) who leads his one-armed brother Clyde (Adam Driver) and hairdresser sister Mellie (Riley Keough) in an elaborate plan to rob the North Carolina’s Charlotte Motor Speedway. To help them in this robbery, Jimmy recruits volatile demolition expert Joe Bang (Daniel Craig). Further complicating the already risky plan, a scheduling mixup forces the thieves to execute the job during the Coca-Cola 600, the track’s most popular NASCAR event of the year.
The action starts when Jimmy loses his job, due to the timely corporate injustice of this here-today-gone-tomorrow layoff, and the prospects for his future are not rosy at all. That’s why he feels justified when he decides to set up his robbery plan, and the audience won’t blame him either.
The movie has many obvious elements in common with “Ocean’s Eleven“. It’s funny, smart and beguiling, although it may not convey the same kind of excitement that the “Ocean’s” films do. It’s extremely watchable, but instead of real suspense moments, there are ironic jokes and nice gags all throughout the movie, all seasoned with excellent performances.
An innovative element, compared to other heist films, is that we watch the robbery unfold with having no clue where everything is going to end up. All aimed at increasing the amazement of an already surprising end in itself.
Apart from our protagonists, there are many other engaging characters: Jack Quaid and Brian Gleeson as Joe Bang’s brothers who are part of the heist team, Hilary Swank an FBI agent, Katie Holmes as Jimmy’s hot ex-wife, and the little Farrah Mackenzie as his Rihanna obsessed daughter.
A totally positive note for the fantastic choice of music soundtrack, among which we can find John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” that serves as the anthem of the movie.
LOGAN LUCKY releases in cinemas nationwide on 25th August 2017
Trailer in the link below:
