Roberto Alonso
Staff writer
It might be the same premise as the Ocean trilogy, but it’s the hillbilly remake, or as the movie itself refers to itself, “Ocean’s 7/11”. Logan Lucky is directed by Steven Soderbergh starring Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, Adam Driver, and Riley Keough. Soderbergh returns to directing with another heist movie. This one is based in West Virginia and follows Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum), one armed brother, Clyde (Adam Driver), and sister, Mellie (Riley Keough), with help from former bank robber and vault door exploder, Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) as they team up to burglarize the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“Logan Lucky”, as mentioned, is the return of Steven Soderbergh after he announced he was retiring from filmmaking after releasing “Behind the Candelabra” back in 2013. His more notable films includes the Ocean’s trilogy and he went back to his roots with Logan Lucky. Where Logan Lucky falls short is that there’s no realistic motive for these people to commit this grandiose heist. In the Ocean’s trilogy, the audience is introduced to the characters as thieves, they can get away with not having a particular motive because they’re already criminals from the beginning. In Logan Lucky, Jimmy Logan is fired from his job and turned from an honest, working, family man, to a brilliant thief who breaks into the speedway. There’s really no reason to root for him. Even if he was already a criminal, or had that type of mentality, there’s never any mention of it. Jimmy did lose his job, and it’s understandable that people need money, but it’s more reasonable to find another job than to steal.
There are a lot of scenes in this movie that seemed to just drag on. The late addition of the FBI agents, one of them played by Hilary Swank in an odd, raspy voice, didn’t really stick as well as they might’ve thought. Every scene with them seems as if Soderbergh was trying to make the run time longer. There were other scenes like the beauty pageant, that don’t really add anything to the development of the plot, they just feel like a way to make the movie longer.
On a positive note however, this movie is a very entertaining end-of-the-summer film. There’s no suspense, or mystery and the audience can already tell the outcome of the movie, but it’s not supposed to be a masterful film. It is shot beautifully and the banter between the characters is funny but it’s not going to blow anyone away. It’s a great example of a “feel good” movie where you go to enjoy and to laugh.
alonrobe@my.dom.edu