What a strangely entertaining but odd experience LOGAN LUCKY delivers. Part Ocean's 11, part Dukes of Hazzard with tongue planted firmly in cheek, it features an all star cast working hard, with varying degrees of success.
Channing Tatum and Adam Driver are the Logan brothers. Dim-witted, loyal to a fault and battling a family curse that's doomed their North Carolina existence, the boys are running out of luck.
Jimmy (Tatum) is a faded LSU quarterback whose glory days are well behind him, Clyde (Driver in the film's best performance) is a one-armed vet loaded with more volatility than brains.
When the boys decide its time to rob a speedway during a Nascar race, their plan is much more clever than you might expect.
Seth MacFarlane is nearly unrecognizable as a European driver whose ego is as big as his mustache. You might recognize Daniel Craig (yes, OO7) as a blond haired, high voiced, muscle bound safecracker who is currently IN-CAR-CER-A-TED but key to the boys plan.
Director Steven Soderbergh is in the same vein as his "Oceans" films, but all the suave and charisma of Clooney and Pitt are replaced with trailer trash, big accents and eccentricity.
Driver is brilliant and would normally win oddest performance, but Craig is having a blast as Joe Bang and wrestles the trophy away at every opportunity.
It's fun but its a bit too long. Hillary Swank seems completely wrong for her role as an FBI agent and Katie Holmes is dull as Tatum's ex.
The ending recovers for a satisfying conclusion, but LOGAN never quite crosses the finish line with the style or laughs to be found in some of it's scenes.
At 90 minutes long, this would have been a fast, fun ride, but at nearly 2 hours, it's like a cross country trip that finds you asking "are we there yet?" every five minutes.
Entertaining in bits and pieces, LOGAN isn't LUCKY enough to get anything better than a B-. Only Driver and Craig get the checkered flag.
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