150 Word Review: 'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' (2026)
Time slop
Gore Verbinski is back directing a modestly budgeted, ambitious anti-blockbuster sci-fi comedy that tries, not always successfully, to mock and explain what it’s like to be a human being at this tortured moment in history.
Verbinski and screenwriter Matthew Robinson tackle hot-button issues like school shootings, social media addiction, and A.I. Their vision is sardonic and irreverent, and even though the pacing is uneven, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a madcap time. The artistic theft is joyful: Verbinski and Robinson steal from 12 Monkeys, Groundhog Day, The Terminator, and the techphobic anthology series Black Mirror. Verbinski also steals from himself, one of this century’s great directors of special-effects spectacles. Sam Rockwell is unhinged as a time traveler who keeps returning to the same diner to assemble a team of normies to help him save the future. The ensemble matches Rockwell’s chaotic energy. Haley Lu Richardson supplies the heart.
Ok, yes, I'm getting a feel for the aesthetics, but... is it fun?
I loved it, but have a bit of a weakness for anything Sam Rockwell is involved in.