Logan Lucky: Steven Soderbergh tries his best Coen Brothers impersonation... and fails.

I finally got around to seeing Logan Lucky, Steven Soderbergh's return to filmmaking after a self-imposed retirement, last night and boy was I underwhelmed.  I meant to see it to during its initial theatrical run, but having two kids doesn't allow me to get to the theater as much as I would like.  I tend to wait for Netflix on a lot of movies that I used to go see in the theater.  Going in, I have to admit that I was pretty psyched for this one.  It had a great cast.  An hilarious trailer.  And a fun premise.  Basically Ocean's Eleven with rednecks.  However, I have to admit that there wasn't much to this film.  It didn't add anything new to the heist genre, and it was a pretty disappointing return to filmmaking for Soderbergh. 

Logan Lucky tells the story of two brothers.  One is a former high school hero turned real life zero (played by Channing Tatum), and the other is a one-armed army vet who runs a local bar (Adam Driver).  Together, they concoct a scheme to rob the local NASCAR event so Tatum's character can provide for his estranged daughter.  Along the way, you get a lot of tomfoolery, a couple laughs, and a plot that seems like a (very) poor man's Ocean's Eleven.  I kept waiting for it to take off, and it never quite went anywhere.  The characters weren't zany enough to be considered a Coen Brothers homage, and the story wasn't interesting enough to add anything to heist genre that we haven't already seen before.

There were a couple bright spots to this film, namely Daniel Craig's goofy explosions expert, "Joe Bang," but they weren't enough to save this formulaic film.  I'm not sure why Soderbergh decided that this was the film he wanted to make after stepping away from the game, but it was a poorly executed mess from a master filmmaker.  Seth MacFarlane is in this film as an over the top NASCAR driver, but he seems like a bad SNL skit (with a bad wig and mustache nonetheless).  Like I said, there's a lot of poor choices in this film.

If you're looking for a better heist film, I highly recommend you check out Good Time, a much better film with top-notch directing and acting.  Save yourself some time and skip Logan Lucky.