Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (dir. Gore Verbinski)
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 134 mins
UK Distributor: Entertainment Film Distributors
UK Release Date: 20 February 2026
WHO’S IN GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE?
Sam Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, Asim Chaudhry, Tom Taylor, Juno Temple, Dino Fetscher, Anna Acton, Daniel Barnett, Dominique Maher, Adam Burton, Georgia Goodman
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Gore Verbinski (director), Matthew Robinson (writer), Denise Chamian, Robert Kulzer, Oliver Obst, George Parra and Erwin Stoff (producers), Geoff Zanelli (composer), James Whitaker (cinematographer), Craig Wood (editor)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
A man from the future (Rockwell) recruits a group of heroes for a battle against AI…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE?
Gore Verbinski has never been afraid to let his freak flag fly. The director’s unusual yet imaginative approach often elevates films that are otherwise let down by scripts that can’t match his visual creativity, whether it be the bloated Pirates of the Caribbean sequels or the infamous bomb that was The Lone Ranger (to date the only Disney film in existence to feature someone eating a living man’s heart – unless there’s a scene in The Rescuers Down Under that I somehow missed), or even his 2016 film A Cure for Wellness which, funnily enough, was the last time Verbinski was trusted behind the camera.
During his ten-year filmmaking hiatus, the world has changed a lot. Artificial intelligence dominates headlines as well as conversations about how trustworthy it is in an era of misinformation and creative bankruptcy, and what remains of our humanity is being slowly drained away by endless TikTok doomscrolling and a lack of legislation to prevent horrific tragedies from becoming everyday occurrences. Verbinski has clearly been paying attention to all this, and with screenwriter Matthew Robinson he’s concocted not a solution but a reflection: Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die serves as a stark warning as to where civilisation is probably headed, but with an insurmountable helping of Verbinski’s eccentric vision that is all too perfectly matched to an equally out-there concept.
It begins on a seemingly normal night in a Los Angeles diner, when a strange man draped in plastic armour and inconsistent wiring (Sam Rockwell) suddenly enters and loudly declares to the confused patrons that he’s travelled back from a future overrun by AI. His mission is to recruit a specific combination of people within this very diner that will join him in a race against time to stop the rogue superintelligent being of the future from being unleashed that very night, but as you can imagine he doesn’t get that many takers. Eventually he scores a few of the diners – including teacher couple Mark (Michael Peña) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), grieving mother Susan (Juno Temple), and tech-allergic young woman Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) – to join him on what turns out to be an increasingly bizarre mission involving pig-mask-wearing assassins, a horde of teenagers glued to their phones, discreet cloning establishments, and even a giant monster that… well, that description should be best left for the actual film.
There’s no better word to describe Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die than “insane”. Robinson’s script is riddled with oddness from the very first line of dialogue, and as the plot unveils new layers to certain characters’ backstories and even the ultimate mission that they’re all on, things rarely seem to make sense. Of course, the nonsense is deliberate, as this is no grounded sci-fi thriller but instead is very much a darkly satirical comedy, one that’s been designed to take some of our most everyday concerns, from AI to even school shootings, and expose how utterly absurd they all are. Regarding the latter, there are scenes where adults and children alike are remarkably non-plussed about yet another maniac going about killing people, most if not all glued to their phones as they mindlessly scroll through increasingly disturbing videos whilst hiding out in a designated panic room. It is ballsy commentary which conceptually may seem obvious to anyone who’s ever taken Satire 101, but is tackled with such a sharp bite and even a bit of Black Mirror-style creepiness that the message is heard loud and clear while still remembering to, as the title suggests, have fun with it all.
Verbinski more than matches Robinson’s vivid imagination with a manic directorial energy that brings even the most out-there of his screenwriter’s ideas to inventive and mesmerising life. It’s already a pretty funny script, filled with eccentric ideas and sardonic dialogue uttered by characters who have fun moments all throughout, but Verbinski manages to amplify its sense of humour by emphasising the unseriousness of it all, especially in the performances of an ensemble who are remarkably in tune with the overall wacky tone. Sam Rockwell is great here, as he fluctuates naturally from the stern leader of this ragtag team to displaying a borderline slapstick physicality that recall a certain pirate captain he previously helped birth into existence, but you also have fiercely committed turns by the likes of Haley Lu Richardson and Juno Temple who legitimise their characters’ rather tragic personalities amidst hallucinatory carnage you would almost expect to see in a Lloyd Kaufman movie.
However, contrary to the first two words of the title, this film isn’t entirely riddled with good luck. At over two hours, it is a movie that is perhaps longer than it ever needed to be (then again, you could say that about many of Verbinski’s films), and you do start to feel the length as it gets into climactic territory and features quite a few logical ending points that aren’t entirely utilised. Some of the other supporting characters remain underdeveloped, to where it’s questionable as to why they’re even there if they aren’t going to substantially contribute to the story or even the mission they signed up for in that diner.
Like AI itself, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is far from perfect and could certainly use a touch-up in specific areas. But when utilised properly, it’s an effective tool that opens our eyes and imagination to new and exciting possibilities. Though between the two, I very much doubt that AI could come up with something as inventively original as this.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a creatively bonkers satire that sees director Gore Verbinski put his visually inventive skills to good use with a script that, while slightly underdeveloped in the character department, cuts to the core of certain everyday issues like AI domination while still being both very funny and hugely entertaining.
Other recent reviews:
0 Comments