The setting is L. A.—the night shift at a family diner that you might see anywhere. No, it’s not the “D” name; this place is called Norm’s. Customers are eating pie, talking quietly, staring at their cell phones.
A stranger bursts through the front door-- looking like a homeless Rambo, adorned with tubes, buttons and lights—announcing that he’s from the future and he wants a small group of recruits to join him on an unspecified but dangerous mission to save the world from imminent disaster.
Furthermore, the diners are told that, basically, they’re his Groundhog Day. He’s lived this scene 117 times and hasn’t found the right combination of people yet for his squad. (One volunteer is rejected, being told that he always, always gets killed.)
A scruffy-looking Sam Rockwell plays the Man From the Future with a mixture of bravado, lunacy and mystery.
Eventually, he assembles seven volunteers and in flashbacks we find out some of their stories. High school teachers Mark and Janet, played by Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz, can’t deal with students who are so addicted to their smart phones, they’re practically a hive mind.
Susan, (played by Juno Temple) is a mother who lost her son in a school shooting, in a world where such calamities are becoming as common as bad air-quality days
And there’s Ingrid (played by Haley Lu Richardson) a disgruntled diner dressed in a Disney-princess outfit who literally has a toxic reaction to modern life.
In the story by Matthew Robinson, it’s pretty apparent the impending apocalypse comes from the smothering effects of cellphones, A. I., Wi-fi, and virtual reality.
The enjoyably unhinged, pell-mell direction is from Gore Verbinski, famously known for several “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, and infamously for “The Lone Ranger.”
His heroes are menaced by random assassins, trigger-happy police and one outlandish creature that makes the Stay-Puf Marshmallow Man look normal.
While the film might go over the top, especially at the climax, it’s still a welcome break from the current Hollywood menu of superheroes, remakes, sequels, prequels and predictable messaging.
In this reality, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die” gets four and a half stars out of five.
