“Good Luck Chuck” (Lionsgate)
Two Movies In One
Good Luck Chuck,” the new film starring Jessica Alba and Dane Cook, is actually two movies in one. There is the sweet, romantic story concerning two people falling in love and trying to make their relationship work; and then there is the trash prone depiction of everything else. The problem is you can’t get one without the other and many will opt to just forget the whole thing.
Charles “Chuck” Logan (Cook) had a hex placed upon him when he was ten years old. The hex said he would never be happy and that he would never find true love. Any girl who was with him would find her true love immediately after being with him. Now years later when Chuck is in his late twenties/early thirties it seems this hex has come true.
Chuck’s best friend Stu (Dan Fogler) tells Chuck not to worry and enjoy the attention women are giving him. Chuck however wants to find the right person and it seems that he has when he meets the kooky and klutzy Cam (Alba). But if Cam is the right one how can Chuck keep her from falling in love with the next guy she meets. That is the quandary.
The Chuck/Cam story is pretty good. Alba and Cook have some really good chemistry between them. Plus Alba displays comedic talents that have not been seen up to this point in her career. Cook is appealing at times but at other times is just annoying – just like his character is supposed to be.
Fogler was a surprise delight in the movie “Balls of Fury” but in this film he is crude, crass and grating. Once you have seen him in this movie you won’t want to see him in anything else anytime soon.
The movie is annoyingly vulgar. If there is a crude joke then it has a home here – and they are all juvenile. Maybe movies are being made on the level of a ten-year-old mentality. At least it seems that way. This film has a lecherous, leering side to it that will turn the audience off except for those kids not yet sixteen who sneak in for a glimpse of the goings on. They will probably love the crudity.
The movie is R rated for profanity, sexual situations and nudity.
There is a sweet little movie at the core of this film but it is a diamond covered up in garbage. Jessica Alba has real potential as a comedy star but being in a movie this crude will limit her audience appeal. Instead of being “Good Luck Chuck” this movie is more good luck, Jessica.
I scored “Good Luck Chuck” a hexed 4 out of 10.
