A One Mann’s Movies review of “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”. (2026, 3*, 15).
“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is an oddity of a film. It’s trying SOOOO hard to be this year’s “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” but really not getting there. It also plagiarises concepts from so many different films that it’s hard to take it seriously at times.
But having said that, I enjoyed a lot about this madcap sci-fi romp, particularly in the first half of the film before things got catty and ludicrous.
One Mann’s Movies Rating:
Plot:
A wild man turns up in a bar claiming to be from the future on a mission to save mankind. He says he is trying to assemble the perfect combination of patrons to allow him to succeed in his mission. But this is his 117th attempt and nothing has worked so far.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC website: “Strong language, violence, injury detail”.)
Talent:
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, Georgia Goodman, Daniel Barnett, Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, Anna Acton, Dempsey Bovell.
Directed by: Gore Verbinski.
Written by: Matthew Robinson.
Running Time: 2h 14m.
Summary:
Positives:
- The first half of the film weaves an intricate story, with random, intriguing elements only explained as the film progresses.
- Some telling social commentary on the state of the world.
- Good performances from an interesting ensemble cast.
Negatives:
- The film wobbled in the second reel and then really went off the rails in the third reel, descending into sub-Matrix silliness that destroyed much of the good will it had build up with me.
- The film is at least 20 minutes too long.
Full Review:
Just so many film-genre references rehashed.
Part of the enjoyment I found in watching this film was ticking off all of the other film and TV shows that this one seems to have – either consciously or sub-consciously – stolen from. I mean, I know that there are few film concepts truly novel in the world, but this was taking the piss! (I listened to Mark Kermode’s review of the film, and he noted many of these too, but I will add a number of my own that I think also apply!)
- Firstly, there is a whole slew of “Black Mirror” concepts involved in the first two flashback stories;
- These flashback tales from the main characters reminded me a lot of the format of “Lost”;
- There’s the whole concept of “The Terminator” in the man from the future trying to alter time;
- The talking pug (which, as I noticed in the end credits, is voiced by the director Gore Verbinski!) is from “Men in Black”;
- The zombie like schoolkids are straight from “The Midwich Cuckoos”;
- Andy’s toys come back to life from “Toy Story”;
- The concept of imagining enemies and them coming into reality is from “Ghostbusters”; and
- The ending is so “Matrix”-like.
(There are probably more, but – even though I was sat on my own in the back row of the cinema – the man from Cineworld made me turn my phone off, so no notes!)
The first half was great.
With all that being said, I really did enjoy the first half of the film. The ever-watchable Sam Rockwell is quirky and odd as the prescient future-man, knowing exactly who everyone is and what they are about to do, since he’s been there 116 times before. (We’ll quietly gloss over why he doesn’t meet 116 versions of himself there with some multiverse arm-waving!). There are some laughs to be mined from these interactions although “Bob” is never a character that should be sacrificed on a whim!
As we proceed we flash-back to the earlier stories of some of the characters: school teachers Mark and Janet (Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz); grieving mother Susan (Juno Temple); and electro-sensitive Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson, who I remember from the decent little 2023 rom-com “Love at First Sight“). We also get a glimpse into the past of Sam Rockwell’s character from the future.
The Midwich Cuckoos, as powered by ‘oblongs’.
In Kazuo Ishiguro’s book “Klara and the Sun” (soon to be filmed by Taika Waititi and starring Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams), a dystopian future is presented where the titular robot describes humans as all day having their faces buried in their ‘oblongs’. This is the future presented here (that indeed Sam Rockwell’s character is trying to correct). He describes “morning phone time” as being the time in the morning when you wake up and ‘check your phone’, extending inexorably for an hour of wasted day: which made me laugh out loud, because this is often me!
The first flashback of Mark and Janet takes us to a terrifying school scenario where pupils are buried in their phones, including during lessons: a fun take on the current UK initiative to remove phones from pupils during the school day. Also disturbing is that occasionally a pupil will randomly try to sell you something as an advert (something we only understand later in the film). This section of the film, supported by strong performances from Michael Peña and the wonderful Zazie Beetz, I found really engaging.
Death and the Clone Wars.
The flashback of Susan (Juno Temple) takes us to the topical subject of US school-shootings. Temple is again excellent as the grieving mother who’s lost her child but has the chance of reengaging with him, in a fashion (just like the episode from “Black Mirror”). This episode was also fun, especially an engagement with another couple at a party (Anna Acton and Dempsey Bovell) where the full horror of the American Dream is unravelled and some previous stuff in the film starts to make sense.
Ingrid’s disease.
The third of the flashbacks takes us into the difficult life of Ingrid, a person suffering from electromagnetic sensitivity that this world is just not well designed for. (This immediately took me back to the very interesting documentary “Electric Malady“, featuring real-life alleged sufferers from the same problem.) We see how Ingrid has focused on ‘princess parties’ so that her work is around pre-teen children who don’t yet have phones…. until they all start to get them: another telling social comment on the inexorable march of screens into kid’s lives!
Then things unravelled for me.
But then the team started their quest and the film got overly silly for me. I won’t go into any spoilers here, but we seem to have seamlessly switched from a “real world” into a fantasy, AI-generated, Matrix sort of world without any obvious explanation. Things – out of this world things – happen that failed to take me along with the story.
This leads us to a massively overblown finale, that rolls in Ingrid’s story, presents us with a screen full of special effects, provides us with a “twist” (a twist that I’d already seen from a mile away) and ending with a stupid ending/non-ending that just left me annoyed.
Less is more!
This is yet another film where the maxim “less is more” would have worked. There is a good and interesting film in here, but its just stuffed full of so much ‘stuff’ that at 134 minutes its overblown and bloated. A cut-down, sub-2 hour film was needed here.
Summary Thoughts:
A real curates-egg of a film, I’ve swayed back and forth between 3 stars and 3.5 stars on this one, but plumped for the lower rating. I found the film a fun watch, and would watch it again, but if feels like an opportunity missed.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer for the film is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm4WbapDzDQ.
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