Logan Lucky

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Steven Soderbergh’s name below the ‘Directed By’ credit but he’s back, and on form, with Logan Lucky.

Perhaps we were too accustomed to his ‘Blockbuster heist’ movies, perhaps the styling was too ‘late 90’s/early noughties’, his regular actors replaced in the market by newer, different breeds.

All irrelevant, as his latest hearkens back to his imperious early run and feels fresh and vibrant. Logan Lucky feels, somewhat, like the Southern Ocean’s Eleven, an elaborate heist movie with a diverse bunch of characters all with different skill sets and motives.

The core trio are brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan (not sure how closely Channing Tatum and Adam Driver resemble each other, to be honest, but both are fantastic here, capitalising on recent form to turn in confident, rounded performances with great accents) and convicted ‘explosives expert’ Joe Bang. Joe, as widely reported, is played by Mr. James Bond himself; Daniel Craig in a random, but fantastic, bit of casting.

Craig, Southern accent, bleached blond hair and eating eggs like a maniac, is transformed here; a truly mad, wild performance. He’s clearly relishing stepping away from the pressures of Bond.

It all zips along as tightly and crisply as Soderbergh’s previous output and stands strong next to Ocean's, Out Of Sight et al. Whilst character motivation is sometimes a little skewed, and some plot details rather more elaborate than they need to be, it has a tidy resolution and a thrilling middle section.

As with almost all heist movies, it thinks it’s a little smarter than it actually is (much like some of the characters themselves in fact) and you’ve gotta be paying attention with the thick accents on show, but Logan Lucky is one of those sleeper movies, the middle-tier Blockbusters not widely seen, but hugely enjoyable.

4 stars ****