By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by Gore Verbinski
• Starring Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, Juno Temple
• R

Maybe one of the few working directors who can actually earn the “from the twisted mind” phrase in his marketing, Gore Verbinski returns after a 9 year hiatus after audience soundly rejected the wildly underrated – and exceptionally bizarre – A Cure for Wellness and sent Verbinski into director’s jail. But like all good escaped convicts, you can’t keep Verbinski down for long and before he likely heads back into the mines he is here to tell you something very, very important.

Which is, of course, that AI fucking sucks.

On the surface, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is treading ground that I think most general audiences probably know already. After all, with generative AI on the rise and in the public consciousness at this point, we are heading into a world where the rise of AI at large feels like an inevitability. Verbinski and writer Matthew Robinson, whose script is something of a passion project, know this whole heartedly, and because of that Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die rushes straight to the point as bluntly and as loudly as possible with it’s message and ideas.

Both a Terminator-style time travel narrative and a darkly funny comedy about scientific advancement gone haywire, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a genre bender of the highest form, almost daring you to figure out what’s coming next. It’s the ultimately anti-AI flick even down to it’s very structure; prioritizing imagination and left field plot hooks over predictability, sometimes to it’s very detriment, and it does it all with a high level of insane craftsmanship that proves Verbinski still has it in regards to balancing practical and visual effects in a near seamless fashion.

It’s in that script that Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die finds most of it’s ambition though, even if Verbinski himself is doing a ton of heavy lifting in making sure the manic energy of Sam Rockwell and his colorful ensemble of people “voluntold” to help him isn’t put to waste. While ostensibly taking place over the course of a single hour of time, the flick jumps around from present to flashbacks to help give context to how certain characters are in the diner at the start of the movie and their own personal experiences with technology. It’s almost Black Mirror-esqe at point, exploring scenarios that are rip for social and critical commentary, with a sequence involving a grieving mother resorting to cloning her son who died in a school shooting as the cherry on top of a flurry of “oh they are actually going there” moments that make a large chunk of the film’s most memorable moments.

Rockwell himself is almost electrically good in this as per expected, and his cooky yet unpredictable persona allows for Verbinski’s gleeful Looney Tunes style “gag a minute” action setpieces to feel tonally at home. An opening sequences that’s ultimately 13 minutes of Rockwell monologuing to the audience and the eventual ensemble ends up being a clear highlight of the entire film. In fact, the first bit of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is so good that when the movie does ultimately start flashing back and flashing forward and trying to balance 6 different characters at once it has to regain it’s footing each time. It manages to do so thankfully, mostly due to the fact that it’s cast is so game for the material and said material is confident in itself, but it also does mean that Verbinski once again is making a movie that runs a little bit too long in the tooth for it’s own good.

But would we really want it any other way? The best things about Gore Verbinski as a director, which Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die absolutely taps into, is that his maximalism is the appeal. He’s loud and brash and especially overlong at points, but he’s always unique and wildly inventive. The camera moves and twists with a mix of precision but also makes you question if the cameraman himself has any idea of what is coming next. His natural eye for composition – the third act in particular has some truly striking imagery – means that he can tell a thousand words in a single picture without much in the way of dialogue.

And while Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die certainly has it’s issues, mostly centered on it’s stop and start narrative devices and the standard Verbinski issue of just being too damn long, it’s also an ode to the creativity of artists and filmmaking in an age where that could lost overnight. It’s a blast of a time throughout, and it’s best moments are some of the most batshit stuff you’ll see in a major motion picture this year. And frankly, I would much rather something that swings for the fences like this then well produced standard fare anyday. It’s good to have you back, Gore.