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Good Luck Chuck (2007)

Good Luck Chuck
Happy Feet Indeed
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Directed By:

Mark Helfrich

Starring:

Dane Cook
Jessica Alba
Dan Fogler

Released By:

Lion's Gate

Released In:

2007

Rated:

R

Reviewed By:

Shanon Onstot

Reviewed On:

Fri Oct 5th, 2007

Grade:

C-


Dane Cook's latest endeavor is not quite as disappointing as his previous attempts at a film career, but it is disappointing none the less. With a script that was quite possibly written by a 10-year-old boy, the film started out pretty rough. I have to say, there was a distinct point when it seemed that Cook and his co-stars settled into their roles and the humor got a little better. There are quite a few funny and charming moments, but trying to find them in a sea of "boobies" was pretty difficult.

The film opens on Charlie (Dane Cook) and Stu (Dan Fogler), two best friends at a middle school boy/girl party. They are playing "Seven Minutes to Heaven" and Charlie gets stuck with the creepy goth girl who has been obsessed with him since 3rd grade. When Charlie tells her he doesn't like her despite her aggressive advances, she puts a hex on him. Supposedly, Charlie will never find true love, but every woman he's ever with will find it with the man they date right after they break up with him. Fast forward 20 years, and Chuck has just been dumped by yet another beautiful girl because he can't say 'I love you' to her. He runs into her at his other ex-girlfriend's wedding, and the woman who has just dumped him catches the bouquet. Didn't see that coming, right?

After the wedding, Chuck returns to his job as a dentist, and all of a sudden his clientèle has become a lot more attractive and a lot more flirtatious. Chuck is focusing his attention on someone he met at the wedding though. Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba) is a penguin fanatic and total klutz. After almost accidentally killing Chuck on numerous occasions, she finally agrees to go out with him despite his growing reputation as the man who is sure to be every woman's stepping stone to finding true love. Chuck really likes Cam, but his friend Stu keeps pressuring him to sleep with every woman he sees as "a public service" and to try and figure out how to break the hex.

I knew ahead of time that this film had an R rating, and I'm not easily shocked these days, but Good Luck Chuck had some parts that were just plain disgusting and borderline offensive. I can't remember a film (except maybe Monty Python's Meaning of Life) that had more topless, and sometimes bottomless women. I think having so much nudity in a film like this can be entertaining, as long as it's done in an original way. Unfortunately, Good Luck Chuck just comes across as rude, cliché and immature. Of course the main female character, Cam, was treated respectfully and actually turned out to be a strong, independent female character – if not a little bland.

The first half of this film basically just annoyed me. Dane Cook was completely boring, Jessica Alba was totally idiotic, and Dan Fogler was downright offensive. None of the main characters had any charm, and none of them seemed to work well together. There was one point in the film, somewhere halfway through, that something clicked. Cook and Alba actually developed chemistry, Cook said quite a few funny things, and Fogler remained disgusting but at least he was disgusting in a more humorous way.

In an interview, I saw Cook say he felt like he was able to incorporate more of his stand-up style in this role. I could see that a few times, and like I said, there were a few parts that really made me laugh and were quite charming. Overall though, everything about this movie was forgettable. The ending is cliché, the humor is bland, and the writing was remedial at best. Hopefully one day Dane Cook will wake up and realize he needs to stick to stand-up comedy, or at the very least pick roles that will show off his comedic talents more successfully.

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