Anyone who’s just lately stood in line for a bagel or espresso on the native bakery and seen everybody staring dazedly at their cell telephones, seemingly afraid to be alone with their very own ideas for 2 minutes, will completely relate to “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die,” the provocative new sci-fi time journey comedy directed by Gore Verbinski and starring the perpetually off-kilter Sam Rockwell.
Here, Verbinski (Rango, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl) returns to Hollywood filmmaking kind with a harsh biting satire on the corrupting ills of smartphones, AI, VR video video games, and the poisonous evils of social media.
It all begins peacefully sufficient till a raveled man sporting a DIY apocalyptic survival swimsuit (Rockwell) staggers right into a Norm’s espresso store in Los Angeles on a typical night time at exactly 10:10 p.m., declaring himself to be from a nightmarish apocalyptic future. He’s there to recruit a mixture of diners to assist him save the planet from billions of deaths resulting from a nefarious AI superintelligence.
At first nobody believes this bearded maniac however he is carried out this actual mission 117 occasions so he is aware of some uncanny particulars concerning the of us sitting all the way down to a burger or slice of pie. Once he chooses his seven random folks and the police present as much as detain or kill what’s clearly a harmful lunatic, the movie evolves right into a video game-style quest to succeed in sure “save points” on the way in which to try to add AI safety measures to appropriate the terrifying future. The goal is a nine-year-old boy who’s creating an AI supercomputer in his bed room that can in the future destroy life.
“Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” showcases a wonderful ensemble forged together with Michael Peña, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhrey, Tom Taylor and Riccardo Drayton. But it is Rockwell’s (“Galaxy Quest,” “Moon”) full-tilt, tour-de-force efficiency that holds the entire wild expertise collectively and it is sheer pleasure to look at him go gonzo into pure undiluted mania.
If you assume “Groundhog Day” meets “12 Monkeys” with a splash of “Ready Player One” you would be getting fairly near the jumble of genres Verbinski is enjoying with in his pessimistic social commentary written by Matthew Robinson.
With a bizarre Terry Gilliam-like tone evoked within the British director’s “The Fisher King” and “Time Bandits,” this cautionary story on the corrosive results of society’s deadly attraction and over-reliance on our treasured digital toys ought to strike a particular nerve with anybody witnessing fellow residents mindlessly texting whereas driving a automotive at excessive pace with their knees in heavy visitors.
As the narrative progresses, the film does bounce forwards and backwards to supply backstories for every of the seven companions that are meant to be humorous however typically come throughout as merely sorrowful. After quite a few failed makes an attempt and lots of grotesque deaths, our manic band led by Rockwell’s snarky, raveled temporal traveler encounter every thing from mobs of shambling zombified youngsters, hapless masked assassins, and a mutant kaiju kitty-cat.
It all descends right into a zany state of cartoonish parody by the tip of its lengthy 127-minute runtime and Gorbinski’s message turns into a bit weary and ham-handed, culminating in a satisfying however bleak finale.
And we swear that there is a not-so-subtle nod to Sid’s demented sandbox playthings from 1995’s “Toy Story” tossed in for good measure within the flashy hyperactive climax.
But maybe probably the most unnerving factor of seeing “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is after the credit rolled and patrons of all ages shuffled again into to the lit hallways and foyer of the multiplex solely to right away seize their telephones to return to the damaging synthetic actuality they simply witnessed, thus making a surreal second the place life actually imitated artwork lampooning life.