Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die review: Clever, infectious and wildly original – AI be damned

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A star rating of 4 out of 5.

If you’re going to see only one movie this year about a bizarre CGI creature – a centaur with a cat’s head that shoots glitter – make it this one. Director Gore Verbinski has created a wildly imaginative and incredibly entertaining time travel story, although the ending gets a bit messy and hard to follow.

Sam Rockwell is fantastic in his role as a time-traveling rebel determined to prevent a nine-year-old boy from creating a powerful artificial intelligence that will ultimately turn against humanity.

He needs to assemble a team, but not just anyone – a specific group of strangers who happen to be at Norm’s diner on one particular night. He’s tried this before with different groups, but each time something unexpected and difficult has stopped him. Will this new team finally succeed? One thing’s for sure: not everyone will survive the journey.

Good Luck really shines in its first two-thirds, skillfully weaving together the main story with glimpses into the lives of the people involved. These smaller scenes feel like mini-episodes of Black Mirror, blending dark comedy with unsettling technology-based fears.

Zazie Beetz and Michael Peña play teachers facing a threat from zombie teenagers brought to life by their phones. Haley Lu Richardson, known from The White Lotus, is a professional children’s princess who surprisingly has an allergy to phones and wi-fi. But the most compelling story follows Juno Temple as a grieving mother who gets a chance to reconnect with her son, who died in a school shooting, thanks to a cloning program.

This part of the film is deeply sad and unsettling, reflecting current issues in America, yet surprisingly hilarious. The scene where the mother gets to ‘design’ her revived son, like choosing options at an Apple Store, is particularly funny.

Temple delivers a truly committed performance – she portrays a believable person grappling with intense trauma within a strangely unsettling world of eerily vacant parents, many of whom have repeatedly brought their murdered children back to life. Remarkably, it’s also genuinely humorous.

Good Luck blends horror, science fiction, action, and comedy, but beneath the surface, the script by Matthew Robinson – known for the comedy film The Invention of Lying – expresses a strong sense of frustration.

We’re facing a serious crisis, and it’s already begun. Unfortunately, it feels like most people aren’t noticing or taking action. Young people seem overly absorbed in their devices, while adults appear overwhelmed and disconnected by everything happening around them. It’s becoming harder for people to focus, and genuine creativity is being overshadowed by content generated by artificial intelligence.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a film that playfully experiments with self-awareness, but this also complicates things. Despite focusing on short attention spans, the movie is quite long at 134 minutes. It sometimes hides plot holes with technical language and impressive visual effects, hoping to distract the audience.

Some scenes in the final act are surprisingly experimental, almost as if created by AI like Chat GPT – it’s an ambitious approach, though it doesn’t quite land perfectly.

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The movie’s conclusion feels rushed and confusing, with multiple attempts at wrapping things up and some plot points that don’t quite add up. It’s visually impressive, similar to later Pirates of the Caribbean films and A Cure for Wellness, but ultimately doesn’t fully deliver a satisfying story.

People might compare ‘Good Luck’ to the acclaimed film ‘Everything, Everywhere All at Once,’ but it probably won’t be up for major awards. And that’s perfectly fine! It’s smart, down-to-earth, and full of lively energy. Most importantly, it’s genuinely original – a rare feat, especially with all the AI-generated content out there.

Authors

Rosie Fletcher

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2026-02-19 14:06