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

One of the few recent movies I’ve seen this year to provide an enjoyable experience all the way through. 

This is a well-thought-out comedy and a great, thought provoking exploration of relevant themes. I would recommend it to every adult and young adult in this digital age. The tension rarely lets up, and the quirky characters are relatable, if a little ridiculous, But they match the tone of the movie.

The synopsis on Rotten Tomatoes does not do the film justice. This movie is about humanity’s evolving (or devolving) relationship with technology —specifically phones and AI. Think Black Mirror.

The movie starts with a seemingly homeless man coming into a diner, claiming to be time traveling. He says he needs six random people to join him in a quest to save the world. The movie quickly dispels your questions about whether this man is telling the truth and becomes a hectic adventure story which weaves in questions of the omnipresent digital apocalyptic paranoia.

The acting is great. I believed every character’s motives, experiences, and reactions, though some things were highly dramatized or over-characterized for effect, most of the time the choices worked. No one will predict where this movie goes with its plot. We get multiple vignettes within which explain backstories and the unique things each character brings to the group. Everyone spotlighted in the film has been adversely affected by technology and their experiences show us the ugly sides of our society’s growing dependence. Whether it’s about teachers being chased by phone-zombie teens whose minds are being controlled by doom-scrolling, or a mother who cannot let go of her dead son and goes to technology to bring him back (the AI version of him at least), and most soberingly, a young woman who loses her boyfriend to technological addiction. Even our main time-traveling hobo protag has a great backstory about the dangers of unfettered AI. As the characters work together to make the emotional moments count and take a stand against the sea of troubles the world faces. Luckily, it is also hilarious.

While the subject matter can verge on serious, the tone is spoofy. This is a thematic movie first, comedy second, and adventure third. The scenes are wacky, over the top, and the characters usually react in human, but humorous, ways to the absurdity of the technological threat. It does a great job keeping you engaged with a subject many people might find hard to approach. Admitting what tech does us harm can be difficult to swallow.

The theme is the best part of this movie. The title of this movie is prophetic not only about what the movie will be giving us, but about what technology can do to us. Tech is supposed to be fun, but as we let it get further entrenched in our lives and psyches, saying ‘don’t die’ becomes a warning. Technology is only fun until it kills you.

Every scene has a purpose, every plot point directs us back to the cautionary warning about the power of technology to addict us, strip us of humanity and leave us devoid of anything that could be called a life. While I like the tone, it does push its absurdity a little too far in a few scenes. However, even when it goes the extra mile for its plot and world building, it’s still talking about its theme. There is a moment where a “creature” appears that seems completely out of place, but it is an indictment of AI generated monstrosities. Only those who have scrolled into dark corners of image boards will recognize what truly revolting creatures a bad AI prompt can generate. 

I found myself truly considering what is to come if we don’t change how we interact with technology and since this is an over-the top comedy, it speaks volume about this movie’s excellent subtext. Not to mention that the Night of the Living Dead homage scene was integrated well. Extra points for that. 

The plot is nothing you haven’t seen before if you’ve watched any race-against-the dooms-day-clock-striking-midnight thriller. We get our cast of unlikely heroes, our high stakes, and our semi-phony CGI climax (which, might have been intentional considering the theme.) However it does do an excellent job of bringing every detail, every seemingly minor aside or prop of the movie, back into the plot. The ending has a nice twist, but it’s really the underlying meaning and characters that make this movie a great watch. The ever-increasing pace and stakes reminds me of the excellent film Miracle Mile. However, unlike that movie, hope infuses a lot of GLHFDD. It acknowledges the dangers of AI, of humanity’s deep flaws, our want to be comfortable instead of human. But it also shows our strengths. That humanity never gives up and that we find power and peace in those around us. Escaping to a lonely virtual world will never give us the same thing as learning to come together as individuals with flaws and strengths.

This movie plays like a long form black mirror episode. I would love to watch it again, now knowing where it’s going with its plot, to explore more about its set-up and themes. It will still strike a chord with those who aren’t always into sci-fi. This movie is funny enough to keep most people entertained, not overly crude and has a timely message that will leave all of us considering how long we can stare into the black mirror in our pockets before it will stare back at us.