Gross 'Good luck' chuck-full of problems
"Good Luck Chuck" valiantly strives to become one of those sexy romantic comedies that seamlessly stitches ultragross humor with lots of female nudity and insightful observations about the nature of true love.
It's gross and funny in parts, but it falls flatter than Oklahoma on the insightful romance part.
Erstwhile stand-up comic Dane Cook illustrates his shortcomings as a leading man in his role as Chuck, a dentist who becomes very popular with women because of his uncanny talent to get them married off.
All an available young lady needs to do to find true love is sleep with Chuck. The next man she dates will be her husband. Chuck becomes an Internet legend, all because of a childhood curse put on him by a miffed Goth girl whose overtures Chuck spurned during a game of spin the bottle.
From the get-go, Josh Stolberg's script sets up Chuck as an enigma. He can't say the "L" word. He's such a romantic, he won't say he loves a woman if he really doesn't, even if it means losing sex.
"What's sex without love?" Chuck waxes philosophically.
"Sex!" his best pal Stu shrieks. "It's still sex!"
If Chuck is the super-ego of romantics, Stu (played with Sam Kinison charm by "Balls of Fury" star Dan Fogler) is the id, a shallow but honest heterosexual who became a cosmetic surgeon just so he can see and fondle naked women. (Apparently, Stu only takes Vogue and Cosmo cover models as patients.)
Meanwhile, Chuck suffers through countless scenes of screaming, orgasmic women who only want his body so they can find true love. He feels so cheap. Used.
Hey, wait a second. Isn't Chuck supposed to be the guy who believes in love? So why does he service his needy dental secretary when he doesn't love her? Why does he accept a bet from Stu to have sex with a 600-kajillion-pound woman with skin lesions to prove a point?
How does Chuck justify being a male skank in denial?
Good thing for him Cam comes along to fall in love with. She's a penguin freak played by the always watchable Jessica Alba, a charismatic actress who loses her clothing in public with alarming regularity. (See the "Fantastic Four" movies.)
Alba is one of the few actresses who can pull off being a funny klutz. Here, she falls down and bangs into light poles with convincing comic timing, but that's not near enough to make an honest movie out of "Chuck."
Directed without style or comic crispness by first-timer Mark Helfrich, "Chuck" is an ugly movie. Anthony B. Richmond's anemic photography looks garishly harsh.
Although a parade of busty naked women (sans Alba) will find favor with male viewers, "Chuck" has a leading man with little charm, a story with little coherence and a battery of numbing cliches, from the obligatory thumbs-up gesture to the popular verbal cliches "Trust me!" "My bad!," "I can't do this!" and "That's crazy!"
"Good Luck Chuck"
1 1/2 star½
out of four
Opens tonight
Starring As
Dane Cook Chuck
Jessica Alba Cam
Dan Fogler Stu
Written by Josh Stolberg from a short story by Steve Glenn. Produced by Tracey E. Edmonds, Russell Hollander, Mike Karz, Barry Katz and Brian Volk-Weiss. Directed by Mark Helfrich. A Lionsgate release. Rated R (sexual situations, nudity, language). Running time: 96 minutes.