Good Luck Chuck Is Not Worth Your Bucks

By: Natalie Abreu

Posted: 9/24/07

Penchants for penguins, offensive and tasteless jokes, endless nudity and all-too-convenient plot devices describe the totally humorless experience that is "Good Luck Chuck," a raunchy, over-the-top and totally unrealistic romantic comedy starring stand up comedian Dane Cook and Jessica Alba.

The film opens suddenly with the plain main title "Good Luck Chuck," as if to say this is just another soon to be forgotten, generic romantic comedy. The first scene thrusts the audience into 1985, where the pre-adolescent versions of Charlie and his rude, crude and lewd friend Stu partake in a "Spin the Bottle/Seven Minutes of Heaven" party. The first sentence of this film is an immature "I love boobies" reference that unfortunately does not go away after the first scene, even when we are taken to the present where Charlie the dentist (played by Cook) and Stu the plastic surgeon (played by "Balls of Fury" star Dan Folger) are both successful doctors.

In the present, Charlie seems to hit and miss on every relationship he's been in, while every woman who he sleeps with finds the man (or woman) of her dreams. This all stems from the party he partook in 22 years before, where a Goth girl who just wanted a little more than kissing with Charlie put a hex on him. It is a plot device just thrown in out of nowhere, one of many in the film. Eventually, when ex after ex of Charlie's gets married, word gets around that he's a "good luck charm." So what does Charlie do? Charlie's "boobie"-obsessed friend Stu suggests that he take advantage of the situation and even convinces Charlie that he's performing a civil service by helping women find true love. Charlie then proceeds to sleep with girl after girl in a senseless, pornographic montage sequence.

But Charlie, who seems bored by all the no-strings attached encounters, wants more than just endless sex. He pursues the Murphy's Law prone Cam, a penguin obsessed penguin trainer played by Alba. Yes that's right, a penguin trainer. Charlie falls for her, even if she is cursed with accidents like walking into champagne glasses, knocking over tables and falling into a penguin pool. Because he thinks that she's the one, he can't take their relationship to the "next level" for fear that his good luck will rub off on her. So Charlie's dilemma ensues: should he sleep with her or not? In the end, the typical romantic comedy ending occurs, followed by more penguin references.

The thing that hurts "Good Luck Chuck" is that it seems to want to be two different films in one, and it wants to capitalize on guy movie/chick flick package films like such as "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up" have done. It has graphic sex scenes, which Jessica Alba - but not Dane Cook - was smart enough to not fully partake in. One includes Charlie and a stuffed penguin, which will never let you look at a "Stuff-A-Bear" penguin at Late Night the same way again. The obnoxious, chauvinistic Stu seems to only care about breasts and is more likely to be sued for sexual harassment than be an actual practicing doctor. This one dimensional, cartoonish character tries to make Charlie look like a nice guy you want to root for. But Cook's performance goes from a semi-charming guy to a smothering stalker that is all too familiar to his stage persona; he even tries to infuse his own jokes as if he decided to not act and just be himself through the last 45 minutes of the film.

Alba takes a dive into comedy through this film with mixed results. Though she plays the sweet, girl-next-door type well, her physical comedy abilities are more embarrassing to watch than they are funny.

Yet there are some tender moments, such as the first kiss between Charlie and Cam, which sadly shows how this film could have been so much more enjoyable if more time and effort had been put into a coherent script and some real character development. The only funny and semi-developed character of the film is the pothead Joe, Cam's brother (played by Lonny Ross of "30 Rock"). The only truly cute and enjoyable scenes in this turkey are the ones with penguin close ups.

A poor script, jokes that misfire and the on-and-off performance of Dane Cook makes "Good Luck Chuck" a waste. This "boob" tries but fails to be anything more than a way to waste your hard earned money and 96 minutes of your life in a dark movie theater.

Contact Natalie Abreu

at Natalie.Abreu@UConn.edu.