Lucky Day at times feels like Tarantino-lite which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but much of this thin plot doesn’t quite work, although I did like Crispin Glover’s crazy performance that almost makes this worthy of a rental.
Lucky Day
(2019)
Genre(s): Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Lionsgate | R – 99 min. – $21.99 | December 10, 2019
Date Published: 12/30/2019 | Author: The Movieman
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Lionsgate provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2.75/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Finally out of prison, safecracker Red (LUKE BRACEY) rejoins his wife (NINA DOBREV) and daughter (ELLA RYAN QUINN) and vows to go straight. But psychotic French hit man Luc (CRISPIN GLOVER) has also come to town, seeking revenge against Red for the death of Luc’s brother — leading to a very unlucky showdown. Quick Hit Review: Lucky Day is a film written and directed by Roger Avary, the Academy Award winner for Pulp Fiction, which he co-scripted with Quentin Tarantino. Avary’s subsequent career has included The Rules of Attraction (adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s novel and a loose sequel to American Psycho) and a variety of writing credits like Silent Hill and Beowulf. This is Avary’s first film in the director’s chair since a film called Gltterati from 2004, originally filmed as a sequence for the aforementioned Rules of Attraction, and only seen by a select group of people (you can read more on IMDb or Wikipedia). In any case, Lucky Day is a film I was torned on whether or not I liked it. At times, especially early on, came across as a poor man’s Tarantino with some familiar style of dialogue (and even our main character calling his wife “honey bunny”), but without that QT flair. There was also some confusing decisions being made, most notably having Nina Dobrev’s character being French; while she is fluent in the language, the nationality has little bearing on the plot, it was so unusual that I thought there would be some connection with Crispin Glover’s Luc was also French, but no big twist… However, speaking of Crispin Glover, he perhaps is the big reason this movie is even worth watching, he proves once more that he is an underrated treasure, a creepy treasure, but a treasure nevertheless. His character has some memorable moments, far more than anything to do with the central characters played by Luke Bracey and Dobrev. Also have an honorable mention to Cle Bennett as Bracey’s best friend, he doesn’t have a whole lot of screen time, but honestly wouldn’t have minded a film centered on him… In the end, Lucky Day had some potential and it’s not in the least bit awful and maybe a little better than I expected going in, especially it’s from Grindstone Entertainment, and I guess if you like this C-level cast and/or Crispin Glover once more playing a creep with thirst for violence, I’d say it is worth a rental. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5 |
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This release comes with a glossy and title-embossed slip cover. Only feature is the film’s Trailer. |
VIDEO – 4.5/5 |
| Lionsgate releases Lucky Day on Blu-ray, presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. Not surprising, but this does look great in HD, detail was generally sharp and colors were bright which was in keeping with the more comedic tone (albeit dark comedy). No flaws, like artifacts or aliasing, were noticeable, so a relatively clean and fine looking picture. |
AUDIO – 4.25/5 |
| The disc include a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which isn’t overly powerful during the few action scenes (there’s one where Luc blows up a car), but others do output some clear dialogue coming from the center speaker with some ambient noises making use of the rear channels. This wasn’t anything mind-blowing but still effective enough for a movie of this type. |
OVERALL – 2.5/5 |
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Lucky Day at times feels like Tarantino-lite which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but much of this thin plot doesn’t quite work, although I did like Crispin Glover’s crazy performance that almost makes this worthy of a rental. |