Starring: Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, Dan Fogler,

Directed by: Mark Helfric

Lionsgate

The Official Site of Good Luck Chuck

The ambition of Good Luck Chuck is admirable. It sets out to take one of the world’s hottest stand up comedians Dane Cook, and make him a bankable leading man. It sets out to take one of action’s hottest ASSets (sorry, I couldn’t resist) in Jessica Alba and introduce her to the world of comedy. And it sets out to bottle the rare magic that is the combination of broad comedy and a heart of gold. It sets out to deliver to us this big beautiful comedy in the fall season when the back to school blues has us desperate for laughs.

It’s efforts to be all those things don’t go completely unrealized. Alba looks remarkably comfortable on screen as the dangerously clutsy would-be girlfriend, and Cook delivers a performance that proves he knows how to act and make you chuckle at the same time. But for all its hard work, Good Luck Chuck is just not funny.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some funny moments. The concept of a man hexed with a curse where whomever he has sex will find their soul mate in their next partner, leaves itself open to some wild sexual humor and wacky montages. And those things are there there, but not at the level where it’s worth remembering. A man has sex with food and Charlie flirts with an ugly beast of a woman as if this were the first time we’d seen either of these things on screen before. Though had they flashed “Ever seen American Pie� on the screen it would have been too obvious right?

I’m not complaining, it’s just not original, and it’s not worth pretending it is just so I can laugh a little harder. The movie obviously puts the bulk of its focus on its story and heart.

The plot sounds like a one note song. “Man has sex, with lots and lots of women�. It’s a nice tune but there’s a lot more to Good Luck Chuck. First time director Mark Helfric and his team mange to take that concept and evolve it into different directions. At first it’s a movie about Charlie (Cook) accepting this weirdly wonderful curse, then it’s about getting the girl (Alba) and then staying with the girl without having sex with her, followed by two or three more evolutions that build off the idea of being with, and staying with, the woman of his dreams. I was impressed how often the story switched gears and how something so seemingly simple could hold my attention so long.

Credit to all the heart in the movie. You’ve got to have heart, otherwise your hero is just a sex maniac, but much effort is spent stressing the fact that Charlie is helping people find true love. He’s uncomfortable with the uncommitted sex, and the audience may be too, but after a scene where a lonely coworker begs him to help her find love he accepts his part in the whole thing and it’s a lot easier for us to be on board too. Cue the sexy montage.

Had they not made a point to do this Charlie would have come off like his monstrously sleazy best friend Stu (Played here perfectly by Dan Fogler who manages to get the biggest laughs with his ranting in the Frisbee scene). That heart keeps the movie on track even when it has very little to say. The most interesting bit of information on life that Good Luck Chuck musters up is that no one can lick their own elbows. It’s physically impossible. It’s just one of those weird facts of life. Can’t be done.

And as random as that it is, it gives you just as much information about the films actual plot as the advertising of this movie did. If you watched any TV spot for this movie in the weeks before its release then chances are you knew nothing about the curse. Those advertisements are loud and clear in their message: “Jessica Alba is in this movie and so is her underwear.�

I was a little thrown off by their marketing campaign, but it’s hard to argue with underwear. Still Alba as an adorable clutz is secondary to the film’s curse storyline. The clutzy girlfriend becomes a crutch for the humor, as in – “Something funny needs to happen here.� “What if she falls down?� “Brilliant!� - and the laughs never really recover. But Alba is good. Her innocents and strong will play as well in the world of comedy as her flat abs and full lips do in the world of action. If this weekend’s less than box office scared her away from the genre, it would be a shame.

But no one cares about that stuff. No one cares if the movie’s funny or if Alba can pull off the comedic stunts. The one question I’ve gotten from everyone about this movie is “How does Jessica Alba look?� That’s all anyone cares about.

It’s probably less a sign of what people are looking for in one of her films, and more a sign that the people I hang out with are mostly dudes, but there seemed to be interest in little of the movie beyond Alba in her unmentionables. Well, just for the record. She looks great. Did you honestly think she wouldn’t? It’s her business, literally, to look great. The thing is, she always looks good, and you don’t have to pay 10 dollars to witness it. Open a magazine, turn on a TV, Google “Alba bikini� and you’ll get 13,800 reasons to wait for a DVD release.

Dane Cook: Comedy’s biggest leading man. Jessica Alba: America’s next physical comedian. Good Luck Chuck: Success. None of these may sound like likely or even possible scenarios, but people like to achieve what they’re told is impossible. I mean, how many of you tried to lick your elbow earlier in this review? The good news is that the potentially impossible got a lot closer than many of us might have expected. They might not have met tongue to elbows, but their forearms are soaking wet.

Rating: 6 out of 10 A harmless movie that’s only frustrating point is that it’s too harmless. Too few risks were taken with the laughs and it had me leaving the theatre unfulfilled. Maybe I got a crowd that wasn’t into it or maybe I was in the wrong seat, maybe I would have laughed harder if I’d gone with a crew of my boys. Maybe, but the best comedies don’t need the stars to line up for them to be funny.

While I have no doubt that this movie would do nothing but gain quality in repeat viewings, I just can’t recommend it for purchase. And it’s for the same reasons I can’t recommend seeing the movie in theatres – the laughs just aren’t there. Over time you’d start to fine humor in some of the throwaway dialogue or individual line deliveries, but you’ll have to work to find them. And any joke that requires that much work isn’t worth the effort.

I suspect that Good Luck Chuck will end up on the shelves of youngsters who look at it lovingly as one of their first R-rated movies, single men obsessed with Jessica Alba, and people that enjoy a nice indirect reference to Total Recall. (I won’t spill the beans! You’ll have to see the movie to know what I’m talking about.) I don’t really fall into any of those categories, even though I do love Total Recall. “But I have never been to Mars!!!� hehehe.

Good Luck Chuck briefly mentions in its storyline Perfectmatch.com and actually incorporates a tie in to its official site as well. This is great for a few reasons, but in my mind the major benefits to this product placement is that it keeps Chuck’s actions in the film legitimate. It reinforces that his marathon sex isn’t as much about sex as it is about people eventually finding their soul mates. Sex with a stranger, online dating… Use whatever method works right? But not that one with Dr. Phil - for the love of God!

The rest of the site features the reliable stand-bys, but I was intrigued by one of the links that said “Send A Kiss�. I’m a romantic at heart and try to take a chance to be so even if it is through some Internet promotional gimmick. I sent one of them to Yeo and she kindly replied saying “Take me off your spam list.� To be fair though, I said the same thing to her when she kept sending me information about the Michael Vick’s dog fighting scandal.

Anyway… courtesy of Good Luck Chuck’s official site, send your loved one a e-kiss today! If you’re interested in the petition form for the suspension of a major league football player I can put you in touch with Yeo’s spam list.

Saw 4 teaser - So, the best trailer I saw before Good Luck Chuck was the teaser for Saw 4. And it’s not even the best trailer because it’s an especially good one, but it’s the best trailer because it was the ONLY one.

Normally I wouldn’t bother mentioning it, but in a world were most movies begin 15-20 minutes after their reported start time due to movie previews, McDonald’s commercials, and whatever bastard version of the Twenty your local theatre is playing theses days, it’s a rare thing to see a lone trailer before the movie begins. It was the weirdest thing though. The crowd, myself included, weren’t ready for the movie to start at all. We were still settling in, fully expecting at least 3 more previews for future Lionsgate classics. But it certainly was a welcome surprise.

I suppose I should say something about the lone trailer. I’d seen this teaser for Saw 4 before that day, and for the most part was unimpressed. Instead of trying to scare audiences back into theatres, they seem to be trading in on the concept that people are already planning on going. “If it’s Halloween… It must be SAW� marches across the screen as images of people being tortured float by. I suppose further associating the franchise with Halloween is a good idea, but there’s got to be a more creative way to do it. I’m hoping for something memorable with the full trailer.

I had a pretty good weekend. Yeo and I sat down to watch Children of Men on Saturday. It had been haunting us for weeks as our latest Netflix DVD that we just couldn’t find time to watch. I’m either extremely proactive or extremely lazy with my Netflix account. There is no middle ground. Either I’m watching 3 movies in one week or letting them sit for the better part of a month.

Some movies are easy. A Bad movie I’ll watch and get out in the mail the next day. But something like Children of Men, or the one that arrived on Friday Citizen Kane, I’m not going to put on in the background while I work.

I’m getting off track though. It was great to revisit Children of Men, a movie I originally added to the cue so that I wouldn’t be tempted to buy it. Of course now I want it more than ever, but with no commentary… I’ll wait. I’m happy to report that Yeo was taken with it as well, though she mentioned to me afterwards that they had watched it at work and she regretted it. The movie is not meant to be background noise and all it did was spoil some of the key moments in the film. She knew how it ended. She knew how one of the major characters dies. Basically she knew enough to ruin the proper viewing.

It’s a shame. But I won’t spoil it for you. If you haven’t seen it yet, please do check out Children of Men. And do it before it becomes socially acceptable for people like me to spoil the ending for you. Bruce Willis was a ghost - have a great week!