"Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die: A Promising Concept That Gets Lost in Overstated Chaos"

GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON’T DIE

(15) 135mins

★★★☆☆

Action-comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die shows the deep concerns around a future driven completely by AICredit: AP

IF you’ve ever looked up and realised everyone around you is staring at their phone, it can feel like you’re already in a dystopian future surrounded by -addicted zombies.

This problem is the basis of director Gore Verbinski’s playful and high-energy film, where the end of the world is closer than we think.

This action-comedy shows the deep concerns around a future driven completely by — and one man’s lifetime dedication to stopping it.

Sam Rockwell plays an unnamed time-travelling maniac, who crashes into a crowded diner to find a collection of people to carry out an important mission.

Filthy, bearded and covered in wires, he delivers a high-tempo, passionate speech about how he has come from the future to stop the end of the world — and has tried over and over again to choose the perfect people to help him.

If it goes wrong, he can press a button that takes him back to the beginning again, like Groundhog Day with controls.

But while he delivers his robust speech, the mostly disinterested crowd have one thing in common — they are all looking at their phones.

Soon, he picks his motley crew to help him.

They include nervous teacher couple Mark (Michael Pena) and Janet (Zazie Beetz), who have experience of their students being hypnotised by their phones.

There is also dowdy, heartbroken mum Susan (Juno Temple), whose son has been killed in a school shooting and the government has paid for an AI version of him to be cloned.

Plus Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson), recently dumped by her boyfriend who chose the virtual world over their real one.

They are all compelling individual stories and make the first half of the film a thrilling ride.

But the team — who must try to reach a nine-year-old boy who started AI in a bid to save the future — never really work as a team dynamic.

There are far too many chase sequences and silly near-misses to make them anything but bland.

Rockwell does a great job keeping this film together, but it flips from being a fascinating concept to a far-too-long overstylised jumble that may well have you reaching for your phone.

THE MOMENT

(15) 103mins

★★★☆☆

Charli XCX plays her big screen alter-ego as a star under extreme pressure to prolong her own hype in The MomentCredit: PA

was the recording artist behind the lime green cultural moment that was 2024’s “Brat” Summer.

And in this amusing acting debut, the Boom Clap star plays her big screen alter-ego as a star under extreme pressure to prolong her own hype.

Directed by Aidan Zamiri the movie has zeitgeisty cameos from model and actress Rachel Sennott (as themselves) as Charli compromises her artistic integrity and cashes in flogging Kermit-coloured credit cards and telling Vogue magazine “What’s in the bag” to promote an upcoming tour.

Made in the muso mockumentary formula of This Is Spinal Tap, this satire includes a brilliant cast.

Rosanna Arquette is record label vulture Tammy and Alexander Skarsgård plays Johannes, a filmmaker who has Charli hanging from an arena harness like an avocado-tinged Tinkerbell.

Bona fide funny British talent including Jamie Demetriou as hapless manager Tim and Phillipa Dunne as Rebecca provide perfect comedic timing, but the too-neat box-ticking ending disappoints.

COLD STORAGE

(15) 99mins

★★★★☆

Liam Neeson stars in horror-comedy Cold StorageCredit: Reiner Bajo

THIS horror- confidently embraces its B-movie roots while delivering sharp humour, genuine tension and a quirky tone.

Directed by Jonny Campbell and adapted by David Koepp from his own novel, the film opens in 1979 as debris from a Skylab crash brings a fast-spreading alien fungus to Earth.

A Nasa team led by , alongside Lesley Manville, freezes and seals the organism inside a government facility.

Decades later, the site has become a self-storage warehouse staffed by slacker Travis “Tea Cake” Meacham ( Joe Keery) and the far more capable Naomi Williams (Georgina Campbell). When the fungus inevitably escapes, mutating its victims in grotesque fashion, the pair must contain the outbreak before it spreads.

Beneath the creature-feature chaos runs a sobering theme about humanity’s habit of boxing up its mistakes and hoping they stay buried.

With impressive practical effects and performances, this is slick, smartly paced and always entertaining.

LINDA MARRIC