USA TODAY International Edition
Review: Heist comedy ‘Lucky Logan’ is a treat
Just what we needed: A good heist comedy
Southern flavor, rampant goofiness and fun twangs go a long way in making director Steven Soderbergh’s cinematic return a sparkling hoot.
A chicken-fried treat akin to Smokey and the Bandit and Cannonball Run, with a little Blues Brothers, heist comedy Logan Lucky (eeeE out of four; rated PG-13; in theaters Thursday) centers on a West Virginia group of accidental crooks and usual suspects who plan to plunder Charlotte Motor Speedway during a NASCAR race. The daylight job and the movie itself are chutzpah-laden efforts that on paper probably shouldn’t work but wind up satisfying surprises.
Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is a working-class coal miner trying to get by, sharing custody of his daughter, Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie), and working through a bum knee, the result of an accident that ended his potential pro football career. When he’s seen limping around his construction site at the North Carolina race track, he’s laid off and sent home to deal with financial and family issues.
Coming to the desperate conclusion of, hey, let’s rob a NASCAR event, Jimmy rounds up a crew that is motlier than George Clooney’s cool Vegas contingent in Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven trilogy yet is lovably silly.
Jimmy ropes in his one-armed bandit of a brother, the pensive Clyde (Adam Driver), and their fast-driving little sister/hairdresser Mellie (Riley Keough). Needing someone who can blow the high-tech vault at the race, the Logans break Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) — an Appalachian MacGyver when it comes to exploding things — out of jail while recruiting his redneck bros Sam (Brian Gleeson) and Fish (Jack Quaid).
The Logan boys try to break the family curse of constant misfortune, although most involved seem a little too lucky at times when pulling off this unbelievable caper. Still, Soderbergh’s first bigscreen venture since 2013 successfully combines clever humor with a nuanced exploration of folks who go to extreme lengths to prove to society that they’re tired of being underestimated.
First-time screenwriter Rebecca Blunt’s script crackles with breezy banter. In one scene, the Bang brothers take patriotic offense to the plan: “NASCAR is like America. It’s like you’re making us hurt America.” Soderbergh rounded up a group who can deliver it well, too. Look for cameos, including Seth MacFarlane as an annoying race-team owner, Dwight Yoakam as a warden and Katherine Waterston as a nurse with the hots for Jimmy.
More Jim Bob than James Bond, Craig is operating on a higher level of crazy than everybody else. His is the movie’s biggest robbery, and he steals scenes when he unleashes Joe Bang’s weirdly pitched West Virginia accent and infectious personality.
The delightfully berserk Logan Lucky is a love letter to backwoods ingenuity and, at a time with a deep divide between red and blue states, a universal dose of hillbilly hilarity.