Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Review
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (2025) Film Review, a movie directed by Gore Verbinski, written by Matthew Robinson and starring Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, Georgia Goodman, Artie Wilkinson-Hunt, Riccardo Drayton, Dominique Maher, Adam Burton, Elly Condron, Meghan Oberholzer, Berenice Barbier and Tanya van Graan.
Veteran filmmaker Gore Verbinski’s cautionary glimpse at the dangers of artificial intelligence, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, often misses the mark in terms of what it tries to accomplish as a movie. However, it’s extremely offbeat in a way that could draw audiences in and allow them to stick with the film all the way to its bizarre and frustrating concluding scenes. This is a wild movie with a large cat made up of cat bodies sucking people up and eating them. This is an insane movie about a man from the future (played by Sam Rockwell) who seems wrapped in tin foil and repeatedly comes into the same diner night after night to warn patrons at the restaurant of the impending doom on its way. This is also a curiously intriguing movie that features creatures that look like bigger budgeted variations of the monsters in Demonic Toys, a low-budget horror film from many years ago. To call Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die a curiosity piece would be a gross understatement. It’s a true original.
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Juno Temple plays a pivotal role in the action as a woman named Susan who volunteers to help the guy from the future on the mission he sets out to accomplish. Susan is well-developed as a character and is a mom who lost her son in a school shooting. Susan is given the opportunity to clone him in scenes that show Susan’s backstory. Temple is perfectly cast in this role and gives the part 100% in terms of emotional development and depth. There are some awkward scenes as school shootings seem to be common in the world the movie sets itself in and the film plays some of the material for awkward laughs as another set of parents create a goofy kid clone to get over the sadness that is too prevalent in their real world. This film, as a whole, has plenty of uneasy moments, but coming from Verbinski, that’s not all too surprising.
Haley Lu Richardson plays the film’s other central role of Ingrid who dresses like a princess for work since she entertains kids at children’s birthday parties. One humorous scene has Ingrid not knowing what Disney princess she’s supposed to be dressed as and is told to say she’s a particular Disney princess’s cousin. Ingrid soon has a boyfriend, but he seems more concerned with technology than with her. This film’s common thread is its statement on the dangers of how technological advances affect our lives. Ingrid forms a bond with the man from the future played by Rockwell and, eventually, is told by a pale, bald “AI boy” (Artie Wilkinson-Hunt) of her higher purpose within the plot.
There are two other main characters, teachers Janet and Mark, played by Zazie Beetz and Michael Peña, who are followed around in their school by creepy kids who seem controlled by their cell phones in one of the most effective scenes in the movie. Technology and its vicious potential end-results is a boon in a film that often charts unfamiliar territory. The structure initially reminded me of Miracle Mile where a guy gets a phone call that the world is going to end and tries to convince people in a diner that he received such a call. This film doesn’t take itself that seriously although it isn’t necessarily light viewing by any stretch of the imagination.
Rockwell is always impressive for his versatility as an actor although the jury is still out on whether or not this role was the best fit for the Oscar-winner. Rockwell does nothing wrong, but he seems past playing goofy oddball characters and should be sticking to playing more layered characters. To get cast in the lead role of this film, Rockwell obviously jumped at the opportunity and the role still suits his talents though he could have done this part in his sleep given his considerable talents.
Richardson is always dressed like a princess for the film’s major set pieces and she acquits herself admirably in the film’s most precious (and most developed) role. Temple gives a bit more delicate sensitivity to highlight her dramatic talents in her own role within the picture, but both actresses are top-notch. Beetz and Peña manage to keep their characters interesting throughout thanks to the ups and downs the plot throws at their characters.
This film is going to be known best for the aforementioned large cat and its warped robots that make the latter half of the movie feel like we’re in Terry Gilliam territory. We most certainly are. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die wants to be a movie that Hollywood doesn’t make anymore– the midnight movie classic. Picture something that could draw late night viewers in like Brazil or The Rocky Horror Picture Show without the songs and with more kinetic energy and a much more serious tone that never becomes too overbearing and you get an idea of what this film could have been. This picture actually should have been a lighter The Terminator, but instead, plays more like 2005’s Crash if it were mixed with a wacky, off-the-wall science-fiction movie. That’s a weird combination.
In the end, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die misses the mark, though. It’s too ambitious to commit to pleasing mainstream audiences and too conventional to take more dramatic risks at the end. It’s an interesting film to watch for fans of sheer obscurity and the cast members are all working really hard here to make the movie flow well. I liked it in spurts, but can’t quite come to fully recommend it despite the presence of the always formidable Rockwell.
Rating: 6.5/10
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