Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die Review: An Electric Sci-Fi Comedy!

In an industry that has opened itself up to valuing and promoting independent films, dramatic-hard hitting films, and world cinema to the masses, it has become a rarity at times to see a movie that “feels like a movie.” Gore Verbinski, best known for his incredible work with the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, has an act for bringing his audience into the most cinematic of worlds to truly escape. Where most blockbusters today are franchise films or IP movies, it is a treat to see an original film come out that digs deep into the most zany and bizarre elements that are a feast for the eyes.

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Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a whole lot of movie that unapologetically takes twists and turns into the dramatic and hilarious nature of the decline of human civilization physically and socially. It is impossible to know exactly what moves the film will make from scene to scene, evidently showing that Verbinski hasn’t lost his flair for pleasing audiences on the big screen.

One ordinary day at a diner in Los Angeles a “madman” (Sam Rockwell) walks in with a bomb strapped to his body informing the people eating that he is from the future, the world is in danger, and only a combination of people from their given diner is able to save the world from ourselves. After some convincing a couple of people volunteer while some are forced to help. On a mission to prevent a form of AI from taking over the entire world, Sam Rockwell and his “army” including Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), Mark (Michael Peña), Janet (Zazie Beetz), and Susan (Juno Temple), embark on time sensitive journey to alter the world they have grown to know.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die puts together a tremendous cast of talented actors and actresses that get to showcase their comedy skills as they also balance their feelings of fear in a world taken over by technology, social media, and artificial intelligence. James Whitaker’s cinematography is balanced beautifully to mask most scenes in a darker atmosphere of despair while lighting flashback scenes featuring Ingrid with vibrancy.

This makes sense when the audience discovers Ingrid’s allergy to technology, thus providing her with a lighter feeling without the weight of technology looming over her. The film is also outrageously over-stimulating, but in a way that emphasizes the thematic elements of the film, thus giving it a stamp of approval.

A lot of media taking on the fears of AI and its implications on humanity often portray its subjects as perpetrators of the harmful technology because of their obsession with it. However, Verbinski’s film at its core has good-hearted people, finding themselves in a collapsing world. It is not to say they do not also utilize the technology that they fear later on but the film does a good job of also examining how its power can get the best of those who try their hardest to resist. It never tries to implicate its subjects as the ones who created their own messes. Instead, it provides enough nuance to distinguish that AI is the issue but we are also hardly doing anything to prevent its consequences.

As the film begins to show its hands during its major climax, it becomes evident that the film is trying to express how artificial intelligence and our constant need for apps at our fingertips has no end or finish but is instead a system that builds on itself to create a never ending rabbit hole of infinite content. Its intention is to always have us in the palm of its hands, providing enough obstacles in games, videos on feeds, and questions to ask Chat GPT that our satisfaction bar can never be completed because there will always be more.

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Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, in all of its valid commentary on the subject is one of the most fun movies one will have, probably this year. It incorporates real human fears with extravagant visuals and effects to mesmerize audiences. Where its message certainly hits close to home especially in our current time, this movie knows how to have a good time while also having audiences leaving the theater scared of the world we are a part of.