Every time I’m forced to interact with some kind of AI, I die a little inside. It is a technology forced upon us whether we want it or not, and outside of living off the grid completely, it has already become ubiquitous in both our personal and professional lives. Enter “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” a blunt force satire that extends Gore Verbinski’s ire beyond AI and includes pretty much all existing technology in his 10 year absence from Hollywood.
What transpires is a deeply weird film that spouts its anger so directly and is so sprawling it becomes more “old man yells at clouds” and less about WHY we should be angry at these things. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is a big old mess of a movie, with so many ideas streaming from its wires it’s hard to make sense of it all. It doesn’t all work, but it is so relentlessly entertaining it’s hard to not enjoy yourself.
Anything that hates AI is a winner in my book
Anything that hates AI as much as Verbinski and his new film is automatically a winner in my book, even if those flaws come close derailing it all. It’s really only survived by his impeccable direction – he hasn’t lost a step in his absence – immersive setting, and a go for broke performance from Sam Rockwell. Its actual narrative bones are pretty derivative, which would be fine if it had anything so say beyond “These damn kids with these damn phones!” “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is essentially Stuck in a Time Loop meets rejected “Black Mirror” episodes.
Matthew Robinson’s script is simple enough using this framework: A man from the future descends upon a Norm’s diner in Los Angeles and needs to recruit the right combination of people to help him save the world from a new AI that destroys humanity. That AI is being built an hour away from the diner, and the right companions – going willingly or not – will help install safeguards now to alter the future for the better.
He claims to have done this well over 100 times, but of course this night feels different. As the wild adventure towards stopping big bad super AI unfolds, we learn more about his chosen companions through a series of flashbacks. This is where the “Black Mirror” influence becomes abundantly clear, with Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beets) being attacked by a hive mind of students holding their phones, Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) losing her boyfriend to a video game, even Susan (Juno Temple) who loses her son in a school shooting only to discover the government can clone her child as a walking, talking, AI version of him – with ads.
Yes, really. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” takes some incredibly wild swings and bold risks, many of which prove too ambitious to sustain the overly long 2+ hour runtime. It’s hard to really hold ambition – even the kind that doesn’t work – under too much of a critical light, though. Not because it’s above reproach, but because I’ve spent so much time championing cinema exactly like this, so when someone delivers it even in a damaged package, I’m inclined to be on its side.
It Looks Great
It looks great, James Whitaker’s cinematography delivering a sort of junk yard grit as they make their way through Los Angeles night. Verbinski absolutely knows how to move the camera and where to put it, making the action visually arresting and hard to not be completely engaged by its cinematic language. Sam Rockwell is always fun to watch, and Verbinksi is smart enough to just let him cook and do what he does best.
He’s electric here, and that’s not just because he’s adorned in a clear raincoat covered in disconnected wires. It only suffers from its script and surface ideas, feeling like a film that is just so angry at everything it can tell you one thing it’s mad about and more importantly, why. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” has all the right ingredients but not quite the right recipe, and if you don’t like what Verbinski’s serving, the sledge hammer satire becomes grating very quickly.
To Sum It Up
This is a really long way to say that “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is objectively ok at best but it worked for me more than it probably deserves. It’s tonally all over the place and jarringly transitions from darker, emotional beats to whimsical satire without any cables to connect them. And ya, it doesn’t have a whole lot to say other than technology is bad for teenagers and our pursuit of AI is going to end very badly for humanity. It feels both timely and dated at the same time, but you know what? “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is just weird enough to have a good time, and on that front – and for me personally – it totally worked.
This is about as niche as sci-fi can get, and “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is most certainly not going to be for everyone. And even for who it IS for it may be a little too ambitious to be completely satisfying. I’m on the positive side of things here, with its strengths doing just enough to overcome the plethora of things that hold it back from being truly great.
As my luck would have it, I did have fun and as far I know I didn’t die.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is now playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.
