'Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die' review: Gore Verbinski’s zany sci-fi adventure

Courtesy of Briarcliff Entertainment

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I want to go on record at the start of this review and say that 2016’s “A Cure for Wellness” is an underrated horror gem that was unfairly raked through the coals when it came out nearly a decade ago. Time has already started to treat it more kindly, and I suspect that trend will continue. Why bring that up now? Because it marked the last theatrical outing from director Gore Verbinski, who finally returns to feature filmmaking with the zany, messy, and occasionally overcooked sci-fi adventure “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.”

Verbinski, once the ringmaster behind the original “Pirates of the Caribbean” trilogy, took a little sabbatical after the commercial failures of “Wellness” and “The Lone Ranger.” So it’s genuinely refreshing to see him back in his element, steering an original, big-swing high concept action comedy packed with eccentric characters, ambitious set pieces, and a delightfully unhinged Sam Rockwell performance at the center.

The marketing has done a solid job keeping the central plot relatively under wraps, so if you want to go in blind, consider this your exit ramp. Rockwell plays an eccentric time traveler known only as “Man from the Future,” and when we first meet him, he literally crashes into a diner wearing a makeshift trash bag coat with a bomb strapped to his chest. It turns out this is far from his first attempt at saving the world. Like “Groundhog Day,” or perhaps more accurately “Edge of Tomorrow,” every failed mission resets the timeline, forcing him to start over again in a relentless loop. The stakes are sky high, with humanity’s fate hanging in the balance in a scenario that feels ripped straight out of “The Terminator.”

To complete the mission, he needs help, and he recruits an unsuspecting group of diner patrons into his increasingly chaotic plan. He makes a compelling case, even if he sounds completely unhinged explaining the mechanics of time travel and the very real likelihood that this is a one-way trip. Having run through countless failed timelines, he arrives armed with accumulated knowledge, from evading law enforcement to strategically choosing the right teammates. Because the group dynamic shifts with every reset, he’s banking on eventually finding the perfect combination of people who can help prevent a future where AI has fully taken over.

Yes, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” is ultimately about humanity’s uneasy relationship with artificial intelligence. Considering we just sat through a Super Bowl where roughly two-thirds of the ads were pushing AI products, the film’s dystopian paranoia doesn’t feel quite as far-fetched as it might have a few years ago.

Matthew Robinson’s screenplay juggles the main mission with flashbacks and character-driven side stories, introducing the oddball crew Rockwell assembles. Among them is a young woman played by Haley Lu Richardson, first seen in a generic princess costume, whose socially awkward and unpredictable personality has kept her off the team in previous timelines. But desperation leads Rockwell’s character to give her a shot this time around, and she quickly proves to be one of the film’s more interesting wild cards.

Elsewhere, there’s a teaching couple played by Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz whose relationship is hanging by a thread, along with a grieving mother played by Juno Temple who has adopted a reanimated version of her child after a school shooting. It’s a lineup packed with big emotional swings, though not every character gets the depth they deserve. Some supporting players exist solely to serve a quick narrative beat before getting unceremoniously eliminated, often to the bewilderment of Rockwell’s perpetually amped-up, Monster Energy fueled performance.

Verbinski still knows how to stage a spectacle, and there are genuinely fun sequences scattered throughout, including an oversized CGI creature that feels like it wandered in from a different movie but still managed to put a goofy grin on my face. At the same time, large stretches of “Don’t Die” feel like an overextended “Black Mirror” concept that never quite graduated beyond the brainstorming phase. The film throws a lot at the wall, including a bizarre subplot involving masked drivers stalking the group, plus an extended stealth mission through a suburban neighborhood that drags longer than it needs to. Even the main villain, while amusing at times, never quite becomes a fully realized threat.

Still, audiences with a healthy distrust of the looming AI apocalypse will likely appreciate the film’s snarky undertones and chaotic energy. “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” builds toward a rambunctious, CGI-heavy finale that plays directly into Verbinski’s strengths as a visual storyteller. Despite its bloated 134-minute runtime and occasionally scattered storytelling, there’s enough invention and weirdness here to make the ride worthwhile. It’s an imperfect but welcome return for a filmmaker who clearly still has a few tricks up his sleeve, and viewers willing to embrace its eccentric wavelength may find themselves having a surprisingly good time.

Grade: B 

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE is now playing in theaters.