With artificial intelligence being the sci-fi topic de jour these days, I wasn’t expecting much from this eccentric adventure down a worn road, even with an admirable cast and the reliably rousing direction of Gore Verbinski. While the film felt like a smattering of Black Mirror episodes hastily stitched together, the bite-sized vignettes and high-speed absurdity kept this routine satire from growing stale. True to its title, it doesn’t so much succeed with its premise as it does have fun with it.

The movie is at its best when Sam Rockwell keeps up the momentum as a time-traveling man so used to his Live Die Repeat mission that he can snag a snack between dodging danger. He arrives at a diner, having been there dozens of times prior, to find a way to save the future from a destructive artificial intelligence. Hitting the ground running, he gives the patrons a brief rundown while threatening with a bomb that he needs some allies for his quest. A handful get selected, ranging from the depressed-in-a-dress Ingrid (Haley Lu Richardson) to the cynically brash Scott (Asim Chaudhry). Their journey to find the origins of this world-destroying technology will not be easy or predictable, as they’ll encounter emotionally unstable gunmen, machete-wielding homeless people, teenage tech zombies, and a monster that looks and feels like a mashup of AI prompts.

Laced throughout are the characters’ backstories, a non-linear anthology that plays like a mash-up of technology satire shorts. Michael Peña and Zazie Beetz play a teacher duo who encounter high schoolers who pretty much become The Borg from Star Trek. Juno Temple plays a grieving mother who loses her son to school shootings, but brings him back with technology that turns a clone of her boy into a walking advertisement. Ingrid has a bizarre tech-related allergy and faces a bitter breakup as her boyfriend gets sucked into virtual reality. The segments last long enough before the limited commentary and themes run dry with cleverness. They also set the stage for a wild scenario where anything strange can happen.

For a film that spouts the crusty cry that we’re all distracted by our phones, the absurdity that follows is rather infectious. That energy is key, considering how much of the tech satire doesn’t stick when so much of it is thrown against the wall. Verbinski feels like a perfect director to crank up Matthew Robinson’s screenwriting to something more than the quaint quirkiness he’s usually known for with the mindless romps of Monster Trucks and Love and Monsters. There’s an enduring quality to the plight of the characters fighting for survival against absurd threats, even if their foes offer little inspiration. Obstacles in the form of an AI personified as a creepy kid, possessed toys, and a cat monster stitched together from internet memes elicit smiles but little surprise, as the randomness becomes predictable. It doesn’t help that protagonists mostly feel like passengers who have to stand and gawk at the sights of gun-toting madmen and a kaiju that bleeds glitter.

There’s enough nutty nitro in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die to enjoy the speed of this sci-fi satire composed of used parts. Despite the zany nature of this tale about stopping AI, it always feels a few scenes short of being truly hilarious. That said, the cast, led by a savvy Sam Rockwell, is admirable enough to follow their adventure, even if the film mostly uses them to witness the madness rather than interact with it. The unhinged hammering of Terry Gilliam-style storytelling with the building materials of worn tech commentary surprisingly holds together just enough to appreciate the charm of a bearded Rockwell, princess-dressed Richardson, and pensive Peña fighting a mess of wires, smartphones, and killers. For a film that mocks our media distractions, it rarely succeeds at meta commentary, but it is still a rousing distraction, enough to keep us from thinking too hard about the existential dread being given the bonkers treatment.

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