Comedies are always weird to review. They are so much more subjective than any other genre. You can judge the performances and other movie-making skill but at the end of the day it has to make you laugh. What makes me laugh may be completely different than what makes you laugh. All that said, Logan Lucky really made me laugh. It reminded me of Talladega Nights- a movie I find hilarious- but this is less naughty than that film. It brought me back to my small town redneck roots with its clever script and engaging performances.

The story of Logan Lucky is pretty simple. It is basically a redneck version of Oceans 11 and that makes sense because both films have the same director- Steven Soderbergh. Both have similar stories and are about a team of people that are planning the heist of the century. Oceans 11 is the better film but Logan Lucky made me laugh a lot more.

The cast is so great in this. Channing Tatum, Adam Driver and Riley Keough play siblings that are planning the heist (Tatum is the lead who looses his job at the beginning of the film). Adam Driver is so funny as a vet who lost his hand in the war. I love when Adam Driver does comedy. The man always makes me laugh.

To make their plan work they have to get Daniel Craig in and out of prison without anyone realizing it. Gone is James Bond! I have never seen Daniel Craig like this before. He was hilarious. Dwight Yoakam, as the warden, has one of the best gags of the movie involving Game of Thrones (which I don’t watch but it was still funny).

Daniel Craig’s brothers played by Brian Gleeson and Jack Quaid were really funny. Sebastian Stan was great. It just w0rked for me. The cast also had really good chemistry together which goes a long way in a heist movie.

Some may complain that the plan is unrealistic especially for these idiots, but I didn’t care about that. Heist movies are always pretty unrealistic and besides many a redneck is surprisingly smart so I bought it. The actors all sell it and the script kept me laughing so it worked. If I had been bored than the unrealistic elements would have bothered me.

The film also looks nicer than it probably deserves to look. You can tell Steven Soderbergh is a strong director because it is shot really nice with great cinematography and lighting. It elevates the film above something like Talladega Nights. It might be sacrilege but I thought this was just as well made and entertaining as Baby Driver.

There are some flaws with the film. There is a point after the heist where they should have ended the movie but it goes on and Hillary Swank is introduced really late. We didn’t need to see the investigation or any of that. Just end with them winning and going off with the money.

Also Seth MacFarlane as a bratty race car owner didn’t work for me but he never makes me laugh- even on Family Guy.

Logan Lucky is also a surprisingly mild PG-13. The language isn’t that bad and it’s not very violent. It’s not a squeaky clean movie but it is pretty tame.  If you can handle Oceans 11 you should have no problem with the content in Logan Lucky. I would expect a movie like this to have a million f words and be more violent but it doesn’t. Yay!

So I really liked Logan Lucky. It did its job and made me laugh. I think you will all have a good time.

Overall Grade- A-