Dane Cook and Jessica Alba in "Good Luck Chuck"
courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment
"Bad Luck Chuck"

Sometimes you look at the trailer or previews for a movie and it gives you high hopes and anticipation. And that is the feeling I got when I saw the advertisements for "Good Luck Chuck." Jessica Alba is a very pretty young actress and in this film she looked to have good comic timing. But when you actually watch the film, now out on DVD, you realize it is one long bad joke filled with smutty language, actions and innuendoes. Like a person afflicted with schizophrenia, this movie is 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 (Dane 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 will love to get a glimpse of the goings on. They will probably love the crudity.

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.

Another movie that doesn't live up to its anticipated potential is "Mr. Woodcock." Billy Bob Thornton has the ability to be very funny on film. So does Seann William Scott. Unfortunately neither of them is very funny in their new DVD "Mr. Woodcock." The same is true for Amy Poehler, Ethan Supplee and Susan Sarandon. Oh there is a laugh here and a laugh there but nothing consistent.

The premise for the movie seemed to have comedy potential. John Farley (Scott) was harassed by his physical education teacher Mr. Woodcock (Thornton) when he was in middle school. Years later he used this past unpleasantness as the basis for a self-help book that has become a best seller. He is on tour for the book when he learns from his book tour representative Maggie Hoffman (Poehler) that his hometown wants to present him with an award.

When he arrives at his mother's (Sarandon) home he learns she is seeing someone. His name is "Mr. Woodcock." John is stupefied by this information and immediately begins to plot how he can break Woodcock and his mother up. He is joined in this plot by his boyhood friend Nedderman (Supplee).

When Farley's revenge plot kicks into high gear so should the comedy, but it doesn't. The only funny moments are those which were shown in the trailer. All else is just silliness and/or cruelty. The audience has tuned out long before the movie ends.

Thornton is a strong dramatic actor as well as one with comedic skills, but his performance here is totally one-dimensional and lacking in energy. Scott has more energy but he is more frenetic than funny, more hyper than hilarious. This is the guy who made "Stiffler" a comic icon in "American Pie" but his performance as John Farley will go down in the Comedy Hall of Shame.

Sarandon's appearance here is questionable. What was she thinking! The woman has spent years building up a strong career. She certainly doesn't need to slum in trash like this. Poehler is not miscast but she doesn't do herself or her career any favors by indulging in this type of lukewarm humor.

It is bad to anticipate a film, especially a comedy, as being a sure winner. But the trailer for this movie made it appear to be a laugh riot. Little did we know. It may not be the worst comedy of the year, but it comes close.

I am one of those rare people who didn't go crazy over "Seinfeld." I never got the humor that came out of nothingness. And therefore I was not a huge Julia Louis Dreyfus fan. That is until she started her new series "The New Adventures of Old Christine." That show has almost made me a convert. You may be too if you take the time to watch the show.

One of the best ways to watch it is to get the new DVD "The New Adventures of Old Christine: The Complete First Season." That way you can watch the episodes back to back with no commercial interruptions and can watch her character evolve over the entire season.

The premise of the show is that Christine (Dreyfus) husband leaves her for a younger woman who is also named Christine. Therefore you have the "old" Christine and the "new" Christine. You can imagine how complicated it all gets.

This DVD contains all thirteen episodes from season number one. You also get a gag reel, some unaired scenes and a discussion of the real Christine with Dreyfus. In short you get all the information and entertainment of the series and more.

Christian Slater, Jenna Dewan and Brian Geraghty co-star in the new DVD movie "Love Lies Bleeding." This movie has a plot vaguely reminiscent of "No Country For Old Men." Both movies concern someone coming upon a batch of dirty money and taking it. Then the owner of the money pursues them to get it back.

Slater is menacing as the dirty DEA Agent who wants his money back and he will pursue the young couple who took it until hell freezes over. Dewan and Geraghty play the couple on the run. This whole pursuit thing makes for a tense movie and an exciting one. "Love Lies Bleeding" is a DVD worth watching.

Finally there is "Killer Diller," a DVD about a couple of guys who live for their music. One of the guys (William Lee Scott) is a guitar player who has had troubles with the law. He is sentenced to play in a church in the South. There he meets a kid named Vernon (Lucas Black) who can tear up a piano.

How they can get their music before the public is a problem but one that might be workable. All they need is a little luck and maybe something a little illegal. Watching them work it out is the fun of the film.

Lucas Black has been around since "Slingblade" and he gets better with each and every role. Watch him in this movie, "Killer Diller," and be entertained.
 

 

 

 

 

©2008 Jackie K. Cooper

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