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Movie Review - Good Luck Chuck (2007)
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(What this rating means)
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| Director: |
Mark Helfrich |
| Starring: |
Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, and Dan Fogler |
| Rated: |
R (for sequences of strong sexual content including crude dialogue, nudity, language and some drug use) |
| Length: |
96 minutes |
| Genre: |
Comedy |
| Tagline: |
There's something funny about Dane. |
| Studio: |
Lionsgate Films |
| Website: |
Good Luck Chuck |
| Release: |
September 21, 2007 |
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PLOT
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In order to keep the woman of his dreams (Alba) from falling for another guy, Charlie Logan (Cook) has to break the curse that has made him
wildly popular with single women: Sleep with Charlie once, and the next man you meet will be your true love. Unfortunately, he isn't able
to break the curse that makes this movie completely unfunny. Nor is he able to break the "Fogler" curse - a curse which will forever be
used to refer to a movie that employs the use of an obese, over-the-top, obnoxiously vulgar sidekick. The absence of humor ensues.
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JOHNNY'S TAKE
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Thanks to the box office success of films like Superbad, Hollywood has found a new trend - forsake any effort to write legitimately funny jokes and clever dialogue and replace any
attempts of originality with vulgarity, nudity, and sexually explicit crudity. Yeah, it's a word. Look it up. Good Luck Chuck is an example that writers are more
interested in pushing the edge of obscenity than pushing their creativity. Hmm, we can't think of a funny joke here, so let's have a breast enhancement surgeon sexually molest
his clients! Nyuk nyuk nyuk. Ohhh, hurry, give us a flatulent 700-pound woman with back acne!
Does anybody remember when Dane "Jerry O'Connell's Doppelganger" Cook used to be funny? Yeah, those memories are starting to fade for me as well. I've heard some of his stand-up, so I
know he can be hilarious, but he is just not leading man material for a romantic comedy. He and Jessica Alba, who spends 90% of her screentime falling down and bumping into stuff,
possess zero chemistry, and you will absolutely cringe every time Cook delivers some really lame line about Alba being prettier than sunsets in Antarctica. Or some such cheese. Don't
expect to root for him to get the girl, ladies. Rather than the southern charm of Matthew McConaughey, or the five o'clock shadow vulnerability of Josh Lucas, Cook delivers the creepy
aura of a sex fiend.
The rest of the movie is filled with one attempt to shock us after another:
- Little kids talking about sexual acts.
- Cook performing sexual acts on a stuffed penguin. No, I'm not joking.
- Old women cussing.
- Multiple frisbee-to-the-crotch shots.
- A penguin-biting-the-crotch shot for good measure.
- Penguins eating their own poop.
And so it goes. If all of this wasn't bad enough, Dan Fogler (who looks like a fat version of Freaks and Geeks' Samm Levine) delivers what can only be described as one
of the most annoying performances in recent movie history. He plays Cook's obese, vulgar, totally unfunny sidekick, and all I wanted to do the entire movie was give him
a side kick. Or a front kick. Or a punch straight to the brain. Whatever would cause him the most pain. His "acting" style consists of screaming his vulgar punchlines and
making spastic movements in the least funny ways imaginable. Believe it or not, his "homeless man's Sam Kinison" performance here is even more obnoxious than his "homeless man's
Jack Black" role in Balls of Fury. *checks watch* Man, I wish his 15 minutes would go ahead and wrap up.
There are a few funny moments scattered about, a Barbershop Quartet singing Beyonce's Crazy in Love being the most memorable, but overall this is an absolute mess. Girls,
are you expecting a sweet, sappy romantic movie that will make you all giddy inside? Well, get ready to inhale the stale odor of disappointment wafting in the air. All you guys
dragged to this by the aforementioned females might want to go ahead and prepare to be disappointed once you gaze upon a cartoonishly obese woman's body hair. And for those of
you who are Dane Cook fans, well, I hope you enjoy watching him dance around like a buffoon while wearing a penguin suit.
Oh, and regarding the point above about kids discussing sexual acts, am I the only one extremely uncomfortable and sickened by watching a 12-year-old girl strip down to her
training bra and then rip off a 12-year-old boy's shirt while asking to see his you-know-what? I sat there in stunned silence, incredulous that this is the kind of stuff
making it to the big screen these days. If I thought I could change things I'd run out to Hollywood, but to paraphrase Todd Snider, it's hard to kick the door down wearing
$90 biker boots.
Good Luck Chuck is a film that only its mother could love - if its mother is a profane wainch with a strong amoral streak. If you have no restrictions at all in terms of
vulgarity, lame dialogue, and cheesily cliched "romantic comedy speeches" then you might inexplicably find some enjoyment here. Otherwise, you'll likely join me in turning this
film around and presenting it with a very painful biker boot of disapproval.
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ODDS & ENDS
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- Lonny Ross, who plays Jessica Alba's pot smoking brother, is a weird combination of Jimmy Fallon, Ray Romano, and Ileana Douglas. No, that's not a good thing.
- Dan Fogler is a strange combination of Sam Kinison, Samm Levine, and obnoxious.
- Dane Cook was in London with Jessica Biel who was in Stealth with Josh Lucas who was in Coastlines with Josh Brolin who was
in Hollow Man with Kevin Bacon.
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MAMA'S APPROVAL
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How was this not NC-17? This is easily the most sexually explicit film I've ever had the displeasure of screening. It's rife with profanity, nudity (apparently Dane Cook
has some sort of clothes phobia), vulgar conversations, and basically nothing of redeeming value. If you take your children to this then you deserve a visit from social services.
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TRAILER COMPARISON
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Well, the movie warns us that it'll be saturated with Jessica Alba's slapstick clumsiness, but it gives no indication as to how explicit it is. Beware of the graphic sex montage
that lasts somewhere between 5-10 minutes.
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THE GIST
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Good Luck Chuck blows chunks. I don't even recommend this as a future rental.
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