‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’: A Messy, Zany, A.I. Apocalypse Satire
After a decade since his last feature, Gore Verbinski has finally returned to helm a picture, this time with a wacky AI satire, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Verbinski’s features have never strayed away from blending the bleak subject matter with comedy (even within films for younger audiences like Rango and Mouse Hunt). He’s at his loudest here, essentially holding up a middle finger to the reality we consistently barrel towards each passing day, and the results are somewhat all over the place.
I’m all for anti-AI messaging, especially when it’s implemented in ways that are both funny and yet insanely bleak. Unfortunately, the commentary does at times devolve into a repetitive nature, to the point where the more interesting commentary is lost. Still, despite its messy screenplay and thin structure, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a wild ride that balances a techno-hellscape with humorous and insightful commentary, making it an enjoyable enough time.
What is Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die About?
The film starts with a killer setup introducing The Man From The Future (Sam Rockwell), who enters Norm’s diner in a haze wearing a coat with what looks like an attached bomb, warning its customers of an impending doom coming for them all—the day when AI completely takes over.
He claims to have seen this scenario hundreds of times, where he recruits a group of random patrons in the diner to install a safety program into the world’s most advanced AI system that’s currently being created. But with each attempt, they fail, and he must reset and try again.
Naturally, most people in the diner think he’s a crazy person, but some think his fears might have a hint of reality to them or just have nothing else to lose. Now, the kooky future man’s hopes are riding on the new crew he’s assembled of Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), Mark (Michael Peña), Janet (Zazie Beetz), Susan (Juno Temple), and Scott (Asim Chaudhry). It’s up to the six of them to save the Earth from an unbeknownst peril that has affected each of their lives in various ways.
Strengths and weaknesses of the film’s satire
The madcap pace at which Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die races through its story causes some characters to seem less developed than others within its large runtime. But the film’s commentary is most effective within the sections where we focus on each member of this band of misfits.
The film is never subtle about the bleak realities we find ourselves in as technology progresses to more absurd degrees. The movie works best when it’s at its most creative within these boundaries.
We flashback with characters like Mark and Janet as teachers under constant stress about their duties. Amidst their students being glued to their phone screens, Susan’s grieving over losing her son in a school shooting leads to her acquiring an AI clone of him.
We even learn that Ingrid is the world’s only person to be allergic to technology in a world whose growing obsession is only with stupid advancements in technology. The blending of the bleak modern updates of this near future, not far from our own, mixed with pitch-black jokes surrounding the doom we find ourselves in and surrounding AI slop within these storylines, is the film at its most interesting.
However, issues start to arise within Matthew Robinson’s screenplay when you realize that the film’s commentary doesn’t really evolve over boomer “phones bad” talk at a certain point in the runtime. There’s nothing lacking subtlety if that’s the tone your film wishes to work in, but what’s offered here simply isn’t enough to engage for a well over two-hour runtime. Add that, combined with the movie becoming completely perplexing with certain reveals in its climax, means Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die doesn’t feel quite as complete as it should for Verbinski’s return to films.
Luckily, the film is kept afloat by certain scenes where Verbinski’s flair really shines and an incredibly committed Sam Rockwell, who rolls with the chaotic absurdity in every scene. Verbinski is no stranger to helming sequences of great spectacle, with his work in Pirates of the Caribbean as the strongest indicator. But it’s impressive how much mileage is gotten out of more action-heavy scenes in the climax, even in the face of some rough CGI.
Final thoughts on Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
The film struggles to add much nuance to its messaging, and its chaotic nature gets a bit tiring as it loses itself through the runtime; but Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die provides enough absurd laughs and witty satire that you admire its messy insanity more than you don’t by the time the credits roll. A far cry from the highlights of Verbinski’s filmography, but a pleasant return nonetheless.
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