‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’ Review

There are movies that gently nudge you toward reflection, and then there are movies that grab you by the collar, shake you violently, and scream directly into your face until you either laugh, cry, or throw your phone into the ocean.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is very proudly the second kind.

After nearly a decade away from directing, Gore Verbinski returns with a film so aggressively chaotic, so wildly imaginative, and so unapologetically loud in its intentions that it almost feels like he is making up for lost time. And honestly, thank God. Because even when Verbinski is messy, he is never boring. This is a filmmaker who understands movement, spectacle, rhythm, and visual energy on a molecular level. Here, he turns that skill into a manic sci-fi comedy thriller that feels like Black Mirror on caffeine, with the anarchic comedic DNA of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz pulsing through its veins.

The setup is instantly irresistible. A man from the future storms into a diner in Los Angeles and claims that the world is about to collapse. He needs a very specific group of strangers to join him on a mission that spans only a handful of city blocks, but could determine humanity’s survival. It is a premise that sounds ridiculous, and the film leans into that ridiculousness with total confidence.

The man is played by Sam Rockwell, and Rockwell is, quite simply, unleashed.

Watching him in this movie feels like watching an actor given permission to become pure electricity. He is bouncing, leaping, ranting, seducing, spiraling, and improvising with his entire body. It is classic Rockwell, but also something bigger, like he is weaponizing his own charisma into a form of chaos. He plays the character as a prophet and a lunatic at the same time, which is exactly what the film needs. You never fully know if you should trust him, but you cannot stop watching him.

Verbinski builds the film around that momentum, letting Rockwell ignite every scene like a match thrown into gasoline.

But what makes Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die more than just a loud sci-fi joyride is its message. Beneath the insanity is a genuinely heartfelt cry of frustration about the modern world. The film is furious about how easily we have surrendered our attention, our imagination, and our humanity to machines designed to keep us docile. It is a movie that looks at the rise of artificial intelligence and algorithm driven culture and asks, very bluntly, what happens when an entire generation is fed nothing but digital slop.

And yes, the commentary can sometimes feel one note. At times, it even leans into that slightly boomer flavored frustration with technology. But Verbinski is so committed to the anger behind it, and Matthew Robinson’s writing is so aggressively imaginative, that it becomes hard to dismiss. The film is not pretending to be subtle. It is not interested in whispering. It is interested in shaking you awake.

Matthew Robinson’s script is completely batshit, in the best way. It is high concept, wildly referential, often obscene, and constantly escalating. It is the kind of screenplay that feels like it is daring you to keep up. Sometimes it is brilliant. Sometimes it is too much. Sometimes it is both in the same scene. But even when the movie veers into pure absurdity, you can feel the intelligence behind the chaos. This is a story about a society collapsing under its own laziness, its own distractions, and its own willingness to accept convenience over truth.

And somehow, it is also genuinely funny.

There are sequences in this film that had me laughing harder than I have laughed in a theater in a long time. The humor is dark, uncomfortable, and sometimes so outrageous it feels like the film is testing the audience’s limits. But it works because the film never feels like it is chasing shock just for attention. It feels like a scream of panic disguised as a joke.

The ensemble cast is stacked, and no one is coasting. Haley Lu Richardson brings surprising emotional weight and a grounded vulnerability that the film desperately needs. Juno Temple is an absolute menace in the best way, delivering some of the most unhinged energy in the film. Michael Peña, Zazie Beetz, and the rest of the supporting players all lock into Verbinski’s frantic rhythm, creating the feeling of a chaotic group adventure that keeps shifting shape.

One of the smartest structural choices is the way the film occasionally pauses to explore character backstory in short bursts. These interludes give the story texture, and they allow the film to expand beyond its central mission. It becomes less about the plot mechanics and more about the broken people who are being asked to save a world that already feels lost.

Technically, Verbinski is in full flex mode. The sound design is aggressive and immersive, the editing is razor sharp when it needs to be, and the visuals are packed with memorable images that feel handcrafted rather than generated. There is a refreshing restraint to the effects work for much of the runtime, which makes the moments where the film finally unleashes its full visual insanity feel earned. Verbinski’s technical prowess is undeniable, and even when the movie goes off the rails, you can still feel a master filmmaker controlling the chaos.

The only real issue is that the film does occasionally overstay its welcome. It is so packed with ideas that it starts to buckle under its own weight, and the final stretch becomes so nonsensical that even the film’s own internal logic begins to blur. There is a point where you can feel the narrative straining to hold together the madness.

But even then, it is hard to be mad at it. Because the experience is exhilarating.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is the kind of movie that feels like a dying genre screaming back to life. It is messy, overstuffed, ridiculous, and occasionally too loud for its own good. But it is also bold, creative, and deeply sincere in its rage. It is a film that believes the human spirit still matters, even if the world is drowning in noise.

It might be too zany for most audiences. It might be too unhinged for people who want their sci-fi clean and digestible. But I genuinely hope a good number of viewers embrace it, because underneath the chaos is something rare: a blockbuster sized fever dream that actually gives a damn.

Verbinski is back, yelling at the wall, and the wall absolutely deserves it.

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die is now in Theaters.