Movie review: Angus Cloud propels tense, twisted 'Your Lucky Day'
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Your Lucky Day, in theaters Friday, is a thriller with a clever hook. The film explores the complexities of a hostage situation with a potential windfall.
On Dec. 23, 2017, The Sip n Go sells a winning lottery ticket to George Laird (Spencer Garrett). A desperate drug dealer, Sterling (Angus Cloud), tries to steal the ticket, creating a standoff that nobody can escape easily.
Cody (Sterling Beaumon), a police officer in the store, shoots at Sterling, killing Laird, and Sterling returns fire. The shop owner, Amir (Mousa Hussein Kraish) and pregnant couple Ana Marlene (Jessica Garza) and Abraham (Elliot Knight) are stuck as hostages.
The lottery ticket makes Your Lucky Day stand out from the usual hostage drama. The money adds a temptation for the hostages and complications for Sterling, given that he has to find a way to claim a ticket now tied to a store at which a violent incident occurred.
The three hostages become complicit in an effort to survive. They agree to some of Sterling's demands for a share of the money, but mainly to escape alive. If they resist, he might just kill them all.
Sterling represents that kind of desperate criminal who employs bravado over intellect. He's no criminal mastermind, but he does have a gun, so everyone else tries to de-escalate the volatile situation.
Ana has the smartest ideas to resolve the situation. Plus, the entire group has to keep employees and inquisitive outsiders from entering the store.
Abraham is forced to leave Ana in the store while he covers the tracks of Cody. This puts Abraham in an English Patient situation, where getting back to the store is more important than obstacles he encounters on the way.
Other parties get involved and complicate the situation. It ultimately ends in a fight rather than a smart plan, but the film maintains the intensity of the scenario until it is resolved.
Writer-director Dan Brown, not the Da Vinci Code guy, makes a statement about consumerism in the film's opening. A montage of advertisements for free side dishes and Christmas gifts also intercuts Sterling's drug deal.
Amir is talking about Venmoing his wife. Laird is a typical blowhard businessman who thinks he can talk his way out of any situation. Laird is the first to learn the hard way that he can't.
Ultimately, the theme is simply that the pursuit of money leads to harm, proportional to the amount of money at stake. Your Lucky Day has enough twists on the hostage drama formula to keep it engrossing until the end.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
