Rating: NN
Good Luck Chuck: Uncut (Maple, 2007) D: Mark Helfrich, w/ Dane Cook, Jessica Alba. Rating: NN DVD package: NN
When a spin-the-bottle game goes horriby awry, young Charlie (Dane Cook) gets cursed: every girl who screws him will find true love with the next guy she goes out with. This gives the adult Charlie lots of action, but not with the penguin-keeper (Jessica Alba) he pines for.
For the first hour, Good Luck Chuck offers lots of blatant, crude sexual humour and lively sparks between the leads. Alba likes being goofy and takes a good pratfall. She’s not a gifted comedian, but two or three more roles like this and she might become one.
But the film never recovers from it’s midpoint slump, when Charlie starts losing the girl and turns into an insecure whiner. Cook just doesn’t have the chops for it. He’s funny and likeable when he’s whipping out confident zingers, but annoyingly incompetent when it’s tantrum time. Alba’s equally flat when she’s doing romantic regret, and her comic klutziness simply vanishes.
This leaves Dan Fogler as the gutter-minded best friend (why do contemporary comedies always have a gutter-minded best friend?) to carry the laughs. He’s good enough. The material isn’t.
The sex montage clips and ad libs add a bit of humour to the extras, but not nearly enough to make up for what’s missing in the movie.
EXTRAS Cook, writer, producer and director commentary multiple-breast, Kama Sutra, penguin and penguin acting docs sex scene extended takes, gag reel, ad libs. Widescreen. English, Spanish subtitles.
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