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Reviews Counted:68
Fresh:24
Rotten:44
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: The Lucky Ones features heartfelt performances, but is undone by the plot's overwrought parade of coincidence and contrivance.
Synopsis: Neil Burger's follow-up to his accomplished period piece, THE ILLUSIONIST, is an affecting naturalistic modern drama. THE LUCKY ONES concerns three Iraq War soldiers who have just returned to the... [More]
Starring: Rachel McAdams, Tim Robbins, Michael Pena, Molly Hagan
Director: Neil Burger
In this interview, The Lucky Ones director Neil Burger speaks about understanding the modern soldier, his surprising casting choice of anti-war activist Tim Robbins as a veteran and why he relates the story while the Iraq conflict continues.
It feels like the writers were trying for dialogue that sounded natural and improvisational. Instead, it feels scripted and rehearsed. It's all phony balony!
The Lucky Ones emerges as a movie with no clear agenda other than perhaps driving an audience nuts.
The Lucky Ones takes a decent premise -- three soldiers returning from Iraq facing domestic challenges upon their arrival home -- and crams so much forced drama into it that the movie devolves into a hack buddy picture.
Lucky might have its heart in the right place trying to soften the image of the average Iraq War soldier, but this is a clumsy, insufferable feature film of excessive formula and embarrassing dramatic development.
I'm sure a lot of bad fiction has been written about veterans and current soldiers in the Iraq War. It's just not that often that it gets shot and projected on to a big screen.
Each secret is more implausible than the last.
Its lack of emotional thrust doesn't inspire the viewer to feel one way or another.
This is not the worst of the Iraq-themed movies of the past few years, and it's possibly the best acted of any of them. But you wish the bonding of these three people wasn't diluted by the trite scenarios and artificial circumstances of their saga.
[A] far-fetched take on Iraq War homecomings.
Top CriticThe biggest disappointment is in this script, written by Dirk Wittenborn and Neil Burger who gave us the delightful Illusionistin 2006.
In the same way much conventional wisdom about the war is half-baked, The Lucky Ones is awash in stereotypes and generalities.
Though Iraq War is in the background, Lucky Ones is yet another disappointing 9/11 film; it's a known fact that for a road picture to work, you need interesting encounters, revelations, self-discoveries, humor and color, all of which are in short supply
Soldiers deserve a better tribute than this trite, phony dreck.
With one head-gnawing plot contrivance after another, it may think it's the wacky Iraq version of Easy Rider but is more like this year's Around the Bend or Diamonds.
So laid-back and plain that the film leaves almost no impression at all.
Three Army soldiers on the road in America bond together through a series of preposterous happenings that come across as silly.
It isn't unpleasant to spend two hours with these three soldiers, although it might have been more enjoyable to spend the time getting to know them rather than force-feeding them artificial road bumps.
Top CriticThe predictable plotting in this well-intentioned salute would be excusable if the dialogue weren't so superficial.
Moments of real trauma are interrupted with sitcom wackiness, all of it connected by a terribly hokey musical score.
August 24, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review 
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