Lucky Fugitives: A weird little road trip that makes zero sense

Should you watch this?

Honestly, only if you have a thing for old-school, slightly frantic black-and-white comedies where logic took the day off. If you need a plot that holds up to even basic scrutiny, steer clear. You’ll probably hate it if you find characters who hold marriage hostage for personal gain annoying. But if you’re into weird, dusty relics from another era, there’s a strange charm here.

The whole setup is bonkers. Jack Wycoff is an author, which apparently makes him eligible to be the body double for a hardened criminal. The police don't ask many questions, and suddenly we are off to the races. It moves faster than it probably should, mostly because nobody stops to think for more than three seconds.

There is this moment where Jack is cuffed to the woman—I think her name was just 'the lady' for half the runtime—and their bickering feels less like romance and more like two people trapped in a dentist’s waiting room. It’s a bit exhausting. You can almost see the actors looking for a way to untie themselves between takes. 😅

The pacing is all over the place. One minute they are hiding in a barn, the next they are halfway across the country. It reminds me a bit of the frantic energy in A Million to Burn, where the chaos is supposed to be the main selling point. It isn't always, but it keeps you from falling asleep.

Some random notes I scribbled down:

• The handcuffs look like they were made of tin foil.
• The dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who had never actually spoken to a woman before.
• There is a scene near a bridge that just goes on for way too long. The silence is awkward, not tense.
• I really wanted them to just get caught so the movie would end.

The whole idea of refusing to prove his innocence until she agrees to marry him? That's a wild choice for a protagonist. It’s supposed to be funny, I guess, but it mostly just makes Jack look like a Grade-A jerk. I’ve seen better romantic tension in Heart Strings, which is saying something.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s barely a movie, really. It’s more like a series of inconveniences strung together with some film stock. But hey, if you like watching people scramble around for no reason, have at it. I’m just going to go watch something where people don't get married under duress.