It’s one hell of a sight to see Steven Soderbergh get back to heist movies. Logan Lucky is as ravishing as his Ocean’s franchise used to be. It has a star-studded cast, a great story, great humour and is really satisfying to watch. Almost manages to take you back in time to the Ocean’s.
Logan Lucky is smart, inventive and funny and that’s what makes it an enjoyable flick. The cast does a fabulous job with Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Daniel Craig literally driving the story forward. People who make the plot even more entertaining are characters portrayed by Brian Gleeson, Jack Quaid and Seth McFarlane.
Direction and Theme of Logan Lucky (Spoilers)
Steven Soderbergh is still great with the camera. Writing credits for Logan Lucky goes to Rebecca Blunt and it’s apt that Soderbergh took this project under his wing. His reach is diverse when it comes to choosing actors. And Logan Lucky has got plenty of big names to showcase. The best thing is that he simply aces situational humor to crack you up which never bores you even for a second.
Meet the Logans
The movie begins with Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) being fired from a job on account of him being limp. He had been working as a construction worker for Charlotte Motor Speedway until he was let go one day out of the blue. If his day couldn’t turn any worse, his ex-wife Bobbie Jo Chapman (Katie Holmes) breaks it to him that she plans on moving to Lynchburg with her new husband thus making it difficult for Jimmy to visit their daughter Sadie Logan (Farrah Mackenzie).
Furious he is drinking at his brother Clyde Logan’s (Adam Driver’s) bar where he gets into a fight with Max Chilblain (Seth MacFarlane) and his friends. He has clearly hit a rock bottom and that’s when he becomes desperate to rob Speedway.
Cauliflower.
He talks with Clyde about his plan to do so, sharing with him the knowledge he had garnered on pneumatic tube system when he was working for the company. Speedway used it to move cash across its main vault.
Logan brothers also include their sister Mellie (Riley Keough) into their plan thus making it a family thing.
Meet The Bangs
They hire Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), a safecracker to safely crack the safe.
I am incarcerated.
Probably one of the most intriguing things to watch in the flick is Daniel Craig’s performance as Joe Bang. He becomes something we are not used to watching him as. The actor changes his entire personality making you forget that he is the guy who plays Bond, James Bond. And that’s one sign to make out a good actor.
Joe Bang comes at a price. They are forced to hire Joe Bang’s brothers Fish (Jack Quaid) and Sam (Brian Gleeson) too, who by the way crack you up with their daft acts.
I know everything there’s to know about computers. Okay? All the twitters! I know ’em.
The Plan in Logan Lucky
The plan is to break Joe Bang out just for the robbery and then sneak him back in before it would raise an alarm. To help him from the inside Clyde intentionally incarcerates himself for a delinquency. Watch out for that bit! So funny.
Mellie, Fish and Sam put cockroaches in the main vault of Speedway to get its proper dimensions.
Joe and Clyde create a riot inside to veil their absence from the prison and then escape via the infirmary under delivery trucks. They are picked up by Mellie who drives them to the Speedway. The dimwit Bang brethren blow up the generator forcing everybody to switch to cash. When the cash begins to flow in really fast, Joe creates a working bomb out of mere gummy bears, bleach, and salt.
Is it twenty or is it thirty? We are dealing with Science here!
They even hire a guy to bullshit the security sent to investigate the smoke coming out of the tube.
The plan stays foolproof throughout. The only problem happens when Clyde ends up running into Chilblain. That and Clyde’s prosthetic arm getting sucked in by the vacuuming machine.
The Big Reveal
The best thing Logan Lucky does is what it does with its climax. It creates an impression as if Jimmy had a change of heart and he leaves all the money behind, tipping off the police about the money whereabouts. Clouds of doubts are created deliberately forcing you to think in that direction. But just as you are about to feel frustrated by the flick’s ending, just as much Joe Bang and Clyde supposedly might have been feeling at one point, you realize that Jimmy is way smarter than he looks.
We find out that Jimmy had simply returned some of the cash from the whole sum to stop the tailing investigations. He had midway, along with Mellie, arranged to hide the cash in a dump. He had also retrieved Clyde’s arm in the process doing all the right things.
As the movie ends we realize that the crew ends up becoming safe and happy after all, but the pain in the tooth is still there in the form of Special Agent Sarah Grayson (Hilary Swank). We see her sharing a drink with Clyde in the end. It leaves all the threads open leaving the audience in a whirlpool of speculation.
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That Emotional Touch
The movie resorts to playing in with its soft corner by using the youngest of all Logans – Sadie. The only thing unselfish about the movie is the father-daughter angle, where Jimmy wishes to provide for Sadie and really be there for her. As the movie begins we see Jimmy telling Sadie about why he loved the song “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver the most. The significance behind it that made him love it even more.
As Sadie takes the stage for her pageant show, where she plans on singing Rihanna’s Umbrella, she finds Jimmy show up at the entrance. She then takes the bold move of changing the song and singing her father’s favourite song instead to make him proud and happy, eventually winning the trophy as well.
The Sense of Satisfaction
The most satisfying thing probably isn’t just watching Jimmy get away with it. But him having a big heart to leave some cash for even the most insignificant people involved in the heist in one way or the other. Even the ones whom he caused minor inconvenience, ends up getting a wad of cash. Even a girl from the school Sylvia (Katherine Waterston) who just put a band-aid on him.
With that, we know that Jimmy isn’t a bad guy after all. He is just a reflection of maybe a fragment of us. Our anger that forces us to become something that we are not. And the picture is so satisfying to watch that it tempts you into becoming a smartass like Jimmy and get what you are really worth.
Minor Issues
Surprisingly I don’t see why Sebastian Stan was even included in the movie for he didn’t have anything to do with the plot. His presence merely felt like a jest the writer wasn’t aiming for but somehow Steven was convinced to rope in a huge name. It is like his regular wont of adding up as many valuable personalities he could lay his hands on. This time it was the Winter Soldier I guess that he had in mind.
However, tempting the idea of robbing might sound or how cool the idea of being a smart ass like Jimmy might appear to be, the flick after all, in a way propagates crime, and delivers a wrong message. That’s the only flaw one could see if one squints too much. But at the end of the day, you must remember a movie like this is supposed to be looked at, just for fun. Hope nobody takes a wrong message from it.
The Final Verdict
Logan Lucky is a hoot. It is really satisfying to watch. The humour will keep you constantly riveted to the story at all times. Even though there are tons of heist movies out there, the subtle entertainment it slips in is unlike we have seen in any of the others. It is a movie that should not be missed.
You can check out another amazing movie review of one of Adam Driver’s movie here.
Check out the trailer of Logan Lucky here:
Logan Lucky
Pros
- Stellar cast
- Great Plot
- Brilliantly Directed
- Great Twist
Cons
- Sebastian Stan's Inclusion
- Sends a wrong message if not looked at as fun
