Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die — Review
Source: Briarcliff Entertainment
Gore Verbinski's Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is so ambitious, audacious, and unconcerned with being accessible or appealing to mainstream audiences that I can't help but admire it, even if it ultimately collapses under the weight of its own ambitions. Matthew Robinson's screenplay attempts to do so much in a single film that the final product is more than a mixed bag, it's a piñata—but instead of just candy inside, occasionally you'll find random objects like a rubber duck, a paper clip, maybe some money scattered in there, and every once in a while you'll stumble upon a dead rat or two. It’s a chaotic, kooky, madcap adventure full of relevant social commentary.
Sam Rockwell stars as The Man From the Future, adorned with a clear plastic raincoat, mismatched shoes, and possibly homemade explosives, who busts into a Los Angeles diner, tells the patron he’s from the future, and warns that things do not go well. He advises that rogue artificial intelligence is about to take over, and his mission is to stop that from happening, but he needs to assemble the correct combination of diner patrons to help him complete his quest, something he’s attempted to do over 100 times before. Fortunately, Robinson’s screenplay spares us from a Groundhog Day-style time loop story where we watch this man relive that night over and over again, trying to assemble the perfect team. Instead, the film opts for a few vignettes to give us some of the characters’ backstories in a way that feels almost reminiscent of last year’s Weapons.
Source: Briarcliff Entertainment
Sam Rockwell’s performance is one of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’s greatest strengths. His charisma makes the film’s opening gripping, and he brings the right energy to the role. He’s reckless and cavalier with stellar comedic timing, the ideal ringleader for this unconventional pack of misfits. Haley Lu Richardson also delivers a magnetic performance as Ingrid, a diner patron in a tattered princess dress who radiates some major death-wish energy, and volunteers to join the mission. Juno Temple’s performance as Susan is also a highlight, as the story gives her character some more emotional depth. The screenplay doesn’t give Zazie Beetz and Michael Peña's characters, Mark and Janet, much to work with, but they still bring plenty of laughs.
Stylistically, the film has the same zany energy as its premise, bursting with peculiar visuals. Geoff Zanelli’s score is lively and helps keep the momentum going, even when the pacing starts to bog down the film. In fact, the pacing is one of the film’s biggest problems. For a film with “fun” in the title, the adventure drags on for so long that by the final act, the excitement starts to falter.
Source: Briarcliff Entertainment
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is refreshingly original yet simultaneously feels like an amalgamation of so many fantastic science fiction works that have come before. In the beginning, it feels like a cross between Black Mirror and Looney Tunes for its anarchic, bonkers adventure about the dangers of technology. However, as we gradually learn more about the characters, it transforms into a more potent social satire. It almost feels like Idiocracy for the TikTok generation. One thing Idiocracy failed to predict was how glued to our phones we’d all be, so it’s satisfying to see a film satirize humanity’s stupidity while directly addressing our dependence on screens. Much like Idiocracy, the satire is far from subtle, and viewers may find it too aggressively on-the-nose. By the second half of the film, however, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die has thrown so many ideas at the wall that it’s impossible to compare it to one film directly. Its bizarre blend of science fiction, thriller, and comedy feels more akin to Southland Tales than anything else.
Source: Briarcliff Entertainment
That maximalist approach is both the film’s greatest strength and its biggest liability. The second half struggles to balance its escalating absurdity with any sense of momentum or earned emotional payoff, and the pacing begins to buckle under the sheer weight of competing ideas. The screenplay wants to be a tech satire, a doomsday thriller, a character study, and an absurd comedy all at once. Although many individual moments land, it never fully coheres. By the final act, it’s far more frenzied than focused.
Even when it stumbles, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is imaginative and ambitious. It’s full of absurd humor and bold ideas, brimming with relevant social commentary, and bolstered by a wildly charismatic performance from Sam Rockwell. Not all of it works, but it takes big swings, has plenty to say, and—true to its title—I had fun (and I didn’t die).
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die hits theaters on February 13, 2026.
