The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review
Luck is the belief that there is some agency that determines chaos and randomness – where happenings that occur in one’s favour are considered good luck and those to one’s detriment are considered bad luck.
Unlike Fate, it is claimed that many things will cause good or bad luck to happen – good luck is ascribed to certain numbers, possession of four-lead clovers or charms; while such things as encountering a black cat, breaking a mirror or crossing a crack in the pavement can bring bad luck. In some mythologies, luck is prescribed by Deities.
In genre cinema, bad luck can often be brought on by a Curse. There are a number of films centred around individuals with extraordinary good or bad luck, or else sudden changes in one’s luck. The agency behind these is usually left vague.
Drama with standout performances. William H. Macy is a loser with perpetual bad luck who is employed by Las Vegas casinos to cool tables that have a winning streak – only for his luck to change when he meets a woman
Deadpool was an hilarious breath of fresh air amid the Marvel Comics adaptations. This sequel is even better, with the self-deflating, fourth-wall breaking humour even funnier and more slickly polished action
From Andrew Lau, director of Infernal Affairs, a weepy Hong Kong comedy about a man caught up in a romantic quandary from his previous reincarnation
Sixth of the Harry Potter films, this feels like a step back from what its predecessor built up. The film suffers from trying to cram all of J.K. Rowling’s book into its running time and ends up being frustratingly mannered
Fascinating directorial debut from Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo about a man drawn into an underground society where people bet on the luck quotient of others
A painfully unfunny Lindsay Lohan romcom in which she has good luck and Chris Pine has bad luck and they swap after a kiss. Lohan seems to regard this as an exercise in her adulation
Disgraced former Pixar head John Lasseter makes a returns to animation for Skydance in an incredibly lightweight effort about adventures in the land of luck
A Disney Channel film where Ryan Merriman discovers that he is the child of leprechaun parents. A mad pastiche of Irish culture, related to the earlier film in name only
One of Woody Allen’s strongest films in years, a London-set work about conscience and murder over which the spirit of Dostoevsky hangs
Mind-bogglingly bizarre documentary that conducts a tour of the bizarre practices of Chinese religion