'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' Review
- Connor Petrey
- 22 hours ago
- 2 min read
Release Date: 02/13/26 [Cinemas]
Genre: Action. Adventure. Comedy. SciFi.
MPAA: Rated R.
Distributor: Briarcliff Entertainment.
The Verdict: A Must-See
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a greeting as explained by one of our characters' boyfriends who become fully absorbed in the world of virtual reality - in their own words it’s similar to “Aloha”. If the title doesn’t immediately draw your attention… the first ten minutes of the film itself certainly will.
The visionary director behind the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, The Ring, and Rango - the Gore Verbinski is an absolute mad genius behind the lens. While executing the wild pages of Matthew Robinson, scribe of the phenomenal Love and Monsters that suffered being released in the 2020 shuffle, Verbinski provides his own unique vision to the proceedings that can’t be ignored.
We begin at a diner, as a man from the future enters and tells a tale of an impossible mission that can only be accomplished with a select number of the diner’s occupants. Sam Rockwell is this man and he is able to emote such a psychotic yet charming behavior at all times - just look at Seven Psychopaths for proof of that. Even through his insanity he is able to recruit a number of participants for a journey that will see most of them meet their doom. This is not the first time he’s tried this mission, so the odds are slim for success but you never know if this is the winning combination until you start the game.
The mission at hand, to manipulate and upload safety protocols for an AI system that is being created the night of the mysterious man’s entry. Trigger happy cops, hitmen, mystical creatures, phone obsessed teenagers; these are just a few of the many obstacles the gang must tackle before the completion of their impossible mission. For the hopes you haven’t seen the trailer, I won’t go beyond that when it comes to who is on board for the journey - while it’s fairly obvious with the familiar faces within the diner, it’s more fun to watch in real time.
This a bombastic, out of this world anthology of sorts, tackling backstory to numerous members of the group - reminiscent of pure gold Black Mirror from before the Netflix takeover. All with a successful wraparound arc to pull it all back together with the mission at hand. The film can get violent, it can get gory, and oh… it can get weird.
The first act is brilliant cinema, full of intrigue and phenomenal performances… then it pushes the envelope on the peculiar going into the next few acts and it’s really up to the viewer to determine if it went a tad too far (glitter is the only clue I’ll offer). Nonetheless less Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is a ridiculously entertaining film that should be an instant classic for so many that decide to step into cinemas and experience it all on the big screen!
