LOGAN LUCKY (2017) *** ½

Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) is an unassuming guy from West Virginia who loses his job.  Desperate for cash, he ropes his one-armed brother Clyde (Adam Driver) into a scheme to rob the Charlotte International Speedway.  They bust “Joe Bang” (Daniel Craig), a demolition expert out of the can to help them with the job.  Naturally, complications arise, and the gang is forced to pull the heist during a big NASCAR race.    

Logan Lucky is a kindred spirit to Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven movies.  (At one point, a news report refers to the robbery as “Ocean’s 7-11”.)  To leave it at that would be to sell it short.  In addition to a heist flick, Soderbergh gives us a daring prison break movie as well as an absorbing white trash melodrama, all wrapped up in one seamless package.  I can’t say it’s quite as good as Ocean’s Eleven, but it’s certainly better than the sequels.

It’s also a terrific showcase for the cast, who are clearly having a ball.  They deliver powerful performances portraying colorful characters that stop just shy of being caricatures and feel like real people.  Tatum and Driver are awesome together.  I hope someone pairs them together again soon because they make a dynamite team.  Craig gets to show a new side of himself, delivering a joyfully off-kilter performance.  Even the supporting players are perfectly cast.  Riley Keough is great as Tatum’s sister, Seth MacFarlane makes a memorable impression as an asshole racecar driver, and Hilary Swank is a hoot as she practically does a Clint Eastwood impersonation as a persistent Fed.

The film might go on a little too long.  It probably could’ve used some tightening up here and there along the way.  Still, there are enough little hilarious side bits and subplots (wait until you hear the list of demands during the prison revolt) that deliver more laughs than most whole movies.