Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die

I keep calling Gore Verbinski’s sci-fi comedy Have Fun, Go Mad, although the Scottish version of this phrase would be called ‘Just Go Out There And Enjoy Yourself, Son’ ; the idea is that as times get tough and the chips are irrefutably down, you might as well make the most of things as we all go down fighting. And that’s the vibe in this highly enjoyable, wildly ramshackle film, arguably the director’s best work (and that’s including 1997’s brilliant Mouse Hunt). Verbinski is probably best known for Pirates of the Caribbean, a rare Hollywood blockbuster that dared to have a comic turn in the leading role. It’s a big gamble for a studio film, but when it comes off, this works wonders, and although there’s a terrific ensemble cast here, the happy centre is a reliably bonkers turn from Sam Rockwell as the mysterious ‘man from the future’…