2017   Bleecker Street

Rated:  PG-13

Length:  1 hr  58 min

Comedy ~ Crime ~ Drama

Directed by:  Steven Soderbergh

Starring:  Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Dwight Yoakam and Hilary Swank.

“Authorities have confirmed they have recovered a Ford F-150 in connection with the robbery at Charlotte Motor Speedway some are calling The Hillbilly Oceans Seven-Eleven Heist.”

Channing Tatum stars as Jimmy Logan, a construction worker from West Virginia working in the tunnels underneath The Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Construction Company HR Department finds out about his leg injury sustained in a High School football game and fires him for not letting them know, saying it could be an insurance liability. Since he is suddenly unemployed and has the day off, he decides to pick up his daughter Sadie and take her to her dance recital. He stops at The Beauty salon where……

His sister Mellie Logan (Riley Keough) is working and promptly tells him, “Well that’s great and all you wanting to see your daughter dance and everything, but it was yesterday.” He then drives to his ex-wife (Katie Holmes) Bobbi Jo’s house to see his daughter but she’s going to the movies with her step-Dad. Bobbi Jo informs him that her husband’s Dealership is expanding and they will be moving across the state line into Lynchburg, Virginia. Jimmy, not happy at the news, and having a real bad day decides to go to The Duck Tape Bar and Grill where…….

His brother Clyde Logan (Adam Driver) is tending bar with his one good arm. He lost the other arm in a bomb explosion while serving in Iraq. Clyde, upon hearing about Jimmy’s bad run of luck today, starts reciting all the bad things that have happened to The Logan Family and how this is just another example of the Logan Family curse. Jimmy then gets into a fight with a Nascar race car driver and his two companions when they start making one arm bartender jokes and harass Clyde. As Jimmy is fighting Clyde grabs a liquor bottle and makes a Molotov cocktail which he throws into the Nascar Owner’s vehicle. As Jimmy leaves he yells out, “Cauliflower!”

Cauliflower is Jimmy’s code word for “I’ve got a robbery plan.” The next morning over breakfast, Jimmy tells Clyde about the plan he has come up with to rob The Charlotte Motor Raceway. They decide that they are going to have to enlist Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) to help with the heist. He is currently serving time in prison and they hatch a plan to sneak him out and then sneak him back in after the heist. Joe Bang enlists the help of the other inmates to create a disturbance to mask his absence from the Warden (Dwight Yoakam). They also enlist Joe’s two brothers Sam and Fish, and their sister Mellie to drive the getaway car.

It is quite the Hillbilly Heist complete with hick West Virginia accents and one liners. Hillary Swank plays one of the FBI agents involved after the crazy caper has ensued. It is a different take on the traditional heist movie. The Director Steven Soderbergh said he came out of retirement to direct Logan Lucky after he saw the script. Having directed Oceans 11, 12 and 13, he referred to Logan Lucky as the inbred cousin of oceans 11, and said he was definitely the one to direct it. I think he did a great job. It’s a hilarious hick heist complete with a one arm bartender.

I liked it, give it a go and see what you think…..

Two Thumbs up!