‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ Evaluation: Sam Rockwell lifts an absurdist AI sci-fi satire

In Gore Verbinski’s absurdist AI sci-fi satire “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” an odd unnamed man (Sam Rockwell) steps right into a Los Angeles diner and declares that he’s from the long run. “All of this is going to go horribly wrong,” he says.

Norm’s diner on La Cienega won’t look like the almost certainly battleground to resolve the destiny of the world, however that’s precisely what this fellow — bearded, with a wreath of wires round his head and a bomb strapped beneath a translucent rain coat — contends.

He is there, whereas clients sip espresso and chunk into an omelet, to enlist recruits for the resistance. In the long run, he says, folks have fully stopped collaborating in life. “It all started with morning phone time,” he says. In the enjoyably oddball, forebodingly bleak and ridiculously believable “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” a ragtag group fights a coming AI apocalypse throughout a handful of nondescript West Hollywood blocks.

It’s been argued that with the onset of AI, storytellers have to get weirder, extra imaginative, extra human. The Daniels’ “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which likewise married cosmic and mundane, was animated partly on this spirit. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” scripted by Matthew Robinson, isn’t that inventive, and it grows extra wayward the deeper it goes into its too-lengthy runtime. But there’s a bonkers appeal to how Verbinski tackles up to date anxieties head on.

This is the primary movie in a decade from Verbinski, the director of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Mouse Hunt” and one of many higher animated options of the century, “Rango.” But after just a few flops (“The Lone Ranger,” “A Cure for Wellness” ), Verbinski cobbled collectively a extra modest funds for this unbiased manufacturing.

The lack of scale is noticeable within the climatic moments of “Good Luck,” however Verbinski’s penchant for lush element and movie-reference onslaught stays. Our central determine is a hobo prophet who seems to be straight out of Terry Gilliam’s “The Fisher King,” solely extra tech-enabled. He has a countdown on his watch, and the upcoming assault on the diner means time is extraordinarily brief.

He’s achieved this earlier than, he says, 117 occasions, to be exact. His speech is well-rehearsed, however Rockwell’s future man extra resembles an actor who’s been doing the identical play for too lengthy. His “Groundhog Day”-like time loop has drained him of optimism. He’s left to desperately and cavalierly maintain attempting numerous combos of recruits within the hope they survive, escape and do one thing that can forestall the AI apocalypse. It’s a remarkably well-suited position for Rockwell, whose stumbling appeal lifts “Good Luck” almost as a lot as Johnny Depp did in “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

“Good Luck” by no means fairly matches the electrical energy of its diner-scene opening, however as a bunch kinds, the film ropes in different characters whose backstories make for fablelike flashbacks. They play like mini “Black Mirror” episodes.

One volunteer, a single mother named Susan (Juno Temple), remains to be mourning the demise of her son from a faculty taking pictures, which on this actuality has grown into such a standard incidence that scientists have developed clones to interchange deceased kids. The clones aren’t fairly proper, although. They all say “Thank you for your service” and the cheaper ones include advertisements. (This is the film’s darkest and finest joke.)

Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) is allergic to telephones and Wi-Fi. Her story features a boyfriend who matches her in a technology-free life till a digital actuality headset leads him to drop out of actual life, fully. Also within the combine are a pair of highschool academics (Michael Peña) and Janet (Zazie Beetz) whose college students by no means search for from their telephones.

As in most sci-fi films, the arrange of “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is healthier than its observe by. But the film has a kinetic kick, and you could possibly argue that it’s obsessive about the proper issues. We may use extra films equally engaged. Even if not each a part of this specific mission is a hit, just like the numbers sport of Rockwell’s protagonist, finally one will get by.

“Good Luck Have Fun Don’t Die,” a Briarcliff Entertainment launch, is in theaters Friday. It’s rated R by the Motion Picture Association for pervasive language, violence, some grisly photographs and transient sexual content material. Running time: 134 minutes. Two and a half stars out of 4.