Logan Lucky 2017

     Jimmy Logan has been working for a construction company at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  He’s fired because he walks with a limp.  He didn't disclose this during his hiring process.  He’s operating machinery and he doesn’t see what difference this makes?  The company is worried about potential liabilities.  Jimmy’s brother Clyde is an Iraq War veteran and he has a simple prosthetic hand.  He tends bar despite having one hand.  After being fired, Jimmy comes up with a plan to rob the Speedway.  There is one problem, they need Joe Bang in on the job!!  Joe is a convicted safe cracker, he knows about explosives and he’s still in prison for a previous job.  Jimmy and Clyde pay a visit to Joe and talk about breaking him out just for long enough to get the Speedway money. 

     I thought this wasn’t going to be very good??  All the characters have heavy southern accents and they don’t seem to have very high IQ’s??  I was surprised they were planning this heist and expecting to get away with it too??  This film was better than I thought and many unusual things happen along the way to the robbery and after.  This is a far different role for Daniel Craig as a previous James Bond!!  3 ½* (I liked this movie)  

118 min, Crime directed by Steven Soderbergh with Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Daniel Craig, Farrah Mackenzie, Jim O’Heir, Riley Keough, Rebecca Koon, Katie Holmes, Boden and Sutton Johnston, David Denman, Charles Halford.

Note:  Imdb 7.1 out of 10, 93% critic 75% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Roger Ebert 3 ½*, Metacritic 78 out of 100 with 51 critics 6.8 out of 10 with 257 reviews, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 635 reviews.

Special Note:  Filmed in Douglasville, Clayton County, Georgia; Concord, North Carolina.  This film had a production budget of $29 million and the worldwide gross was $47.5 million.  There could be a second film with these numbers?  The film was distributed by cutting out studios. The production team would retain creative control and make money directly from the film itself.  Director Soderbergh raised the budget by selling off foreign distribution rights.  Then he sold everything but the movie to pay for advertising and prints.  He sold post-theatrical rights to HBO, Netflix, Video-On-Demand, television and airplane companies.  Jimmy has a list on his refrigerator with 10 tips on how to pull off the heist.  This idea came from the film How to Rob a Bank (and 10 Tips to Actually Get Away with It from 2007).