Logan Lucky 4K/BD + BD Screen Caps

THE MOVIE — 2.5/5

Steven Soderbergh over his career has had more hits than misses for me with Ocean’s Eleven being a great ensemble caper-heist-comedy while its sequel was too love in itself to allow the audience to enjoy it. And now we get Logan Lucky, a redneck version of the aforementioned Oceans films and while the cast is respectable, the story is incredibly dull.

The plot is simple enough, revolving around Jimmy Logan (CHANNING TATUM), a former high school football star and divorced father who has just been laid off and is desperate for money. So, he ropes in his war veteran brother, Clyde (ADAM DRIVER) and hairdresser sister, Mellie (RILEY KEOUGH), to pull off a robbery at NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 with a literal laundry list of to-dos.

To get the job done, they enlist the help of explosives man Joe Bang (DANIEL CRAIG), only problem is he’s in prison! But they have a plan to break him out and break him back in after the heist. He only agrees if his cousins — Fish (JACK QUAID) and Sam (BRIAN GLEESON) — are let in on the job. Of course, just like the Ocean’s Trilogy, the plan doesn’t exactly go off without a hitch.

Honestly, if you hadn’t told me Logan Lucky was directed by Soderbergh, I wouldn’t have known as this film lacks that visual flair compared to the Ocean’s Trilogy or Out of Sight, though David Holmes’ score does help. But beyond the lack of style, I just wasn’t invested in the story or characters. I’m not sure if it’s because this was more or less some sort of love story to the region (North Carolina) or what, but I actually didn’t have any fondness for the Logan family. Beyond the lack of sympathy of the various characters, the laughs are far and few in between although I did manage to chuckle a time or two but that was about it.

Then you add in what seems like a slapped on story thread, Hilary Swank is introduced as an FBI Special Agent investigating the robbery and her scent gets onto the Logan’s and cohorts. Not sure exactly what this was supposed to add to the story as there was no suspense or even a threat they were going to be caught. I suppose it was nice seeing Swank in a movie again (not sure what the last one I saw was), but her character has little to offer outside of some sort of set-up for a sequel.

Now, despite all of the issues I did have (a heist that doesn’t live up to the build-up, lack of appealing characters, jokes that failed to land), I can’t say Logan Lucky was a particularly terrible film, it’s also not exactly terribly interesting either. I guess the only fascinating part is exactly who wrote it as apparently Rebecca Blunt doesn’t exist and theories of her identity varies from Soderbergh himself, his wife or another associate.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 1.0/5

4K VIDEO – 4.5/5, BD VIDEO – 4.25/5

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment releases Logan Lucky onto 4K presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a 2160p ultra high-definition transfer. For the most part, this is a fine looking picture with sharp detail and some bright colors aided by the HDR10. Blacks are fairly stark and well balanced while still showing off the detail within, but the majority of the film is well lit and thus comes across nicely in 4K.

The 1080p high-definition Blu-ray might not be as bright or sharp compared to the UHD format, yet it’s still pleasant looking enough, if not all that impressive.

AUDIO – 4.0/5

OVERALL – 2.5/5

The most intriguing aspect of Steven Soderbergh’s latest heist film, Logan Lucky, was who exactly wrote it as “Rebecca Blunt” apparently doesn’t exist. Beyond that, the crime and comedy aspects didn’t appeal to me at all and I found the film to be a bit dull at times. The 4K/Blu-ray released by Universal offers good video/audio transfers but lacks any substantive features.