James Bond Fans Must Watch ‘Logan Lucky’ Before It Leaves Netflix

James Bond fans take note. Daniel Craig’s superb NASCAR heist film Logan Lucky is racing toward a Netflix exit on August 21, 2025, leaving less than a week to check it out before it reaches the finish line. Directed by the great Steven Soderbergh from a stellar script by his spouse, Jules Asner, Logan Lucky is one of the twistiest and most intelligent heist movies from a director who knows a thing or two about the genre after making Ocean’s 11-13.

In following a pair of brothers orchestrating a daring NASCAR racetrack robbery, Logan Lucky showcases a much different side of Daniel Craig’s acting skills than 007 fans are familiar with. Instead of a dashing British spy, Craig plays Joe Bang, a skilled safecracker from the American South who assists the two brothers in the heist.

‘Logan Lucky’ Is an Underrated Heist Film

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One of the most underrated heist films of the last decade, Logan Lucky follows brothers Jimmy (Channing Tatum) and Clyde Logan (Adam Driver). Down on his luck after being fired from a construction job beneath the Charlotte Motor Speedway, former football star Jimmy concocts a scheme to rob the stadium during an active NASCAR race.

Jimmy recruits his brother, Clyde, a bartender and Iraq War veteran, and their younger sister, Mellie (Riley Keough), to rob the racetrack. The siblings also enlist Joe Bang (a scene-stealing Craig), a bleach-blonde safecracker and demolition expert with a thick Southern accent. To get Joe’s assistance, the Logans must break him out of jail, execute the heist, and return Joe to prison without anyone noticing, then rush out of town with the loot in tow.

Fans of Craig’s 007 movies will get a blast out of seeing how he plays the wildly amusing Joe Bang with region-specific humor and idiosyncratic quirks that Rian Johnson later tapped into and exaggerated in Knives Out and Glass Onion.

‘Logan Lucky’ Continues Steven Soderbergh’s Genre Mastery

Aside from Craig’s spotlight-hogging turn, Logan Lucky shows Steven Soderbergh at the top of his directorial craft. No stranger to the heist genre, after making the criminally underrated Out of Sight and three movies in the Ocean’s Eleven franchise, Soderbergh marries colorful characters, a rich setting rarely seen, and a criminal plot with peerless expertise, underscoring his evolution as a top-flight filmmaker.

Sidestepping nearly every heist movie cliché and formulaic blueprint, Logan Lucky keeps viewers off balance with its unpredictable plot twists. Heads will swim trying to keep pace with the fast, fun, and unforeseen action, with Soderbergh challenging audiences’ notions of heist film conventions.

For instance, heist films by definition are unsentimental. Yet, while far from melodramatic, Logan Lucky reveals itself as an affecting family drama that takes the original heist plot and uses it to strengthen the bonds of the Logan family. Critics recognized this distinction when the film was released in 2017, with Logan Lucky holding a 92% Certified Fresh Rotten Tomatoes score and a 78 Metascore.

The marriage of complex plotting with irresistible entertainment from start to finish, coupled with colorful characters and unforgettable performances like Craig’s, results in one of Soderbergh’s best movies of his career and solidifies his status as a master of heist movies.

‘Logan Lucky’ Leaves Netflix This August

Bleecker Street / Fingerprint Releasing

Logan Lucky was added to Netflix on August 21, 2024. Exactly one year later, on August 21, 2025, Logan Lucky will no longer be available on Netflix. Whether one-year licensing options will become the norm for Netflix as it continues to outsource movies and TV shows, every fan of Daniel Craig’s work as James Bond needs to see how versatile Craig is as an actor in Logan Lucky.

Joe Bang is funny, off-beat, dangerous, impulsive, and unpredictable, qualities that 007 hardly possesses. Knowing how diverse his performance is from his most famous movie character, Logan Lucky‘s poster trailer pokes fun by stating: “And introducing Daniel Craig.”

It’s as if the marketing campaign was preparing audiences to be blown away by how different Craig is in the movie. To this end, Soderbergh granted Craig total freedom to create the look and sound of his character, with the caveat that Craig wouldn’t have to promote the film in exchange. Soderbergh also reportedly had to fight the temptation to make Craig do more takes, as he was so amused watching his performance. Craig stayed in character throughout his two-week schedule.

While Craig steals the show more than most, Logan Lucky also features sublime performances by Hilary Swank, Seth MacFarlane, Sebastian Stan, Katie Holmes, Dwight Yoakam, Katherine Waterston, Jack Quaid, Macon Blair, and several real-life NASCAR drivers that amplify the authenticity. See it before it leaves Netflix on August 21, 2025.

Logan Lucky

Release Date

August 18, 2017

Runtime

118 Minutes