With the rise of artificial intelligence becoming more of a social occurrence in our everyday lives, this is something that has been warned about by various creators who have used science-fiction for decades as a warning. Whether it is authors like Philip K. Dick or filmmakers like Lana and Lilly Wachowski, their works have warned about our reliance on A.I. and the non-acceptance of our own reality. In recent media, there have been dystopian stories that have stripped away the high technology to address such themes as seen in Apple TV’s Severance and now the cinematic Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.
Written by Matthew Robinson – best known for co-writing and co-directing The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais – Sam Rockwell plays a man from the future who travels to the past to recruit patrons of a Los Angeles diner to help combat a rogue artificial intelligence. While some of the recruits are reluctant, others like Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) and Susan (Juno Temple) have their own motive to join the man’s crusade.
As this was originally conceived for television, which eventually made its way on the big screen, you can see how Robinson’s script hammers hard on its anti-A.I. message. Not only the main plot that is the man’s crusade, but there are also the numerous flashbacks from some of the recruits, who have experienced the horrors of this rogue A.I. in their own way, whether through education or personal relationships. Due to the flashbacks feeling like an episode of Black Mirror, that balance between serious and comedy can be somewhat unwieldy, especially when the film touches upon subject matter like suicide and school shootings.
Whilst many aspects of the script are on point with what they set out to do, the overall film is oddly paced. With a running time of 134 minutes, you can contribute this issue to director Gore Verbinski, who revels in the excess as seen in his Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. And yet, within the mess, there are set pieces that are inventive and remind you why Verbinski seems gleeful when directing the chaos. No doubt the influence of Everything Everywhere All at Once looms large and whilst it doesn’t quite the emotion of what the Daniels achieved, the film makes good use of its surprisingly small budget with bonkers imagery and crazy special effects that no one has seen before.
It also helps that the cast is fully committed to the insanity, none more so than Sam Rockwell whose role as “the man from the future” looks like he stepped out of Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys. While there is comic timing from the likes of Juno Temple and Michael Peña, Rockwell nails the lunacy from that opening scene where he rants about the dangerous future that awaits humanity whilst trying and mostly fails to recruit everyone in the diner. However, the standout ends up being Haley Lu Richardson, whose turn as Ingrid surprisingly brings the emotional depth that carries the film, right towards the powerful and twisty climax.
