Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of February 16, 2026
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
Rated R for pervasive language, violence, some grisly images and brief sexual content
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%
In Theaters
I got a hold of this little gem the week after its release, but man am I glad I caught it. Brought to us by Pirates of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski, the movie begins as a seemingly homeless crazy man, played by Sam Rockwell, shows up in a cafe, claiming to be a man from the future who is trying to save the world from a collapse brought about by unregulated AI. He claims to have been in this same cafe over a hundred times, and he knows for certain that the perfect combination of people joining him will help him change the world, but he doesn’t know what combo yet. Convincing enough people to join along, he sets off on an adventure to take out the creator of the world’s demise. At this point, the film tells the brief backstories of its cast, making sure we know just enough about them and the overall world around them, and enough to bring us back to the mission at hand and the consequences of its failing. With a solid cast, including Rockwell, Haley Lu Richardson, Juno Temple, Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz, the film quickly turns into a phrenetic but fun mess that is as entertaining as it is relevant. It reminds me of the 2026 film Idiocracy, which is incredibly important and prophetic, but has only achieved cult-classic status due to not being able to deliver a great movie, but rather a bucket of great ideas. This movie does that equally well and could possibly find the same audience. I’m not sure why it didn’t get a bigger release, but it’s certainly worthy of one. I can’t wait to turn people onto it, just for the nutty conversations that will obviously blossom. I found the film to be highly entertaining and engaging on a surface level but humorously frightening in a way that is both serious and not. It wants the audience to laugh out loud and yet still take the subject matter seriously. Maybe it’s too complicated and deep for most. Or maybe it’s too silly. That will be in the eye of the beholder. But I hope a lot of folks get to see it so that we can have those conversations for decades to come. B+