Logan Lucky

Logan Lucky can be summed up as a redneck version of Ocean's 11. It's about two brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan who are down on their luck and attempt to pull a heist at a Nascar race. They enlist the help of their friend Joe Bang but they first have to help break him out of jail to pull it off.

The hardest thing about this movie for me was accepting the actors in their roles. They all had great performances but it was still hard seeing James Bond speak with a southern drawl or Kylo Ren being a slow talking bartender. Channing Tatum, Katie Holmes, and Riley Keough were also very believable in their roles.

I didn't even realize until after the movie was over that it was directed by Steven Soderbergh who also directed all the Ocean movies. There are many similarities to those movies including  a host of characters working together in a complicated heist. The main difference is the absense of a glamorous Vegas setting. This movie comes off a little earthier with more simple characters but it is still well done. It's also quite quirky and almost Napolean Dynomite-esque with how goofy some of the characters are. 

If I were from the south I might take offense with the blatant southern redneck stereotypes but I thought it was a funny and enjoyable movie. It even had some entertaining plot twists.

This movie was a little strange but it was also one of the funner movies I've seen in a long time. I give Logan Lucky 7.2 stars.

More Movie Pet Peeves

One of my very first blog posts was about movie pet peeves. At the time I thought I got everything off my chest but I seem to have missed a couple things that I’ve noticed in many movies recently.  The first is the abrupt phone hang up practice and the second is the self-healing car. I will address them in that order.

Often in a movie there will be a cop calling his partner or a wealthy business man making a deal, or a bad guy who calls one of his henchmen and then hangs up after a short conversation with few instructions. They seldom say "goodbye" or "I'll see you at the office later" or anything like that. They just hang up! There are so many problems with this.

I recently tweeted how much I hate it when I see this in a movie but Twitter is not the best place to discuss it since I really need to elaborate, so it's a good thing I have a blog.

1) It's rude. You don't just hang up on someone when your attention span maxes out. At least say "I have to go" prior to hanging up. This really shouldn't surprise me since these are the same people who just state their last name when they answer the phone instead of saying "hello."

2) I can only imagine how many times these people must have to call each other back during the day to verify what someone said or didn't say and to get more specifics to their vague and super short conversations from earlier. Maybe those are found in the deleted scenes. 

3) It's not realistic. When I make a movie it will be realistic. It will probably be a long and boring movie but it will be accurate. I will show the characters waiting in line at drive thrus and the DMV and having detailed phone conversations where they practice good communications skills by restating back what was previously said to them so the other person knows they understand. They will also wait the customary 12 weeks for DNA tests and lab results to come back from the coroner instead of getting them the next day.

Now its time to address another major offender and that is the car that gets in multiple crashes and wrecks throughout the movie but editing didn't seem to notice that the damaged car repairs itself throughout the movie. The only time this should be allowed is if it is a car belonging to Wolverine.

I've seen this in many movies in the past but I was recently on a plane and the person next to me was watching Kidnap staring Halle Barry. In the movie, her son is kidnapped and she chases down the abductor in her minivan and is involved in many crashes and accidents with her vehicle, yet in later scenes, parts of the car that were previously damaged were shown dent free and the damage has repaired itself. For how much money companies spend to make movies, you would think they would hire someone to look for obvious goofs like that. I'm available to do it if they can't find anyone else in Hollywood.

These things may not be a big deal to you but they drive me crazy and I look forward to the day when our society no longer permits such egregious occurrences to happen in movies.