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When Chuck Goes Up
By bukkhead | January 25, 2008
FILM REVIEW: ‘GOOD LUCK CHUCK’
Written by Josh Stolberg , based on a short story by Steve Glenn
Directed by Mark Helfrich
Rated R
96 mins.
I’ve seen bad movies that were actually pretty good, and good movies that weren’t really so great. Waiting was not a good movie, but I enjoyed it. Same for Employee of the Month. As Good As It Gets got all sorts of acclaim, and I thought it was awful. Good Luck Chuck, though, is easier to evaluate, because it’s a bad movie that’s just bad. And not the kind of bad you can enjoy. Just bad.
Which is too bad, cause I like Dane Cook. He needed a bigger role in Waiting. He was perfectly balanced by Dax Shepard in Employee. He might end up being just another comedian who moves on to more money and less creativity in film, but then, that’s how entertainment works. But if he keeps making movies like this, he’s going to end up with a crappy little sit-com that I only watch because it’s in syndication and on at 4:30 when I’m flipping channels before making dinner.
It’s another formulaic romantic comedy plot, which is itself not why it’s bad. Chuck’s been cursed: every woman he sleeps with finds her soul mate in someone else soon after. He will never find true love, which is just fine, until he meets Cam (Jessica Alba). You know how things go from there.
So it’s an easy film to write—why all the bad? It’s mysognistic, for one. Women who are not skinny, white, and blond are less than human, the butt of half the film’s humor. During the requisite montage, Dane is shown copulating in fantastic positions with dozens of women, each with progressively worse personality quirks or physical peculiarities. Of course, lots of movies are misogynistic. But the writing is just bad. Dialogues are clumsy, based on no premise whatsoever. When Chuck meets Cam for the first time, at a wedding, their conversation is straight out of a bad romance handbook—how to talk awkwardly on the first date.
There are only a few scenes where “Dane” gets to come out and play; sad, since he’s the only reason to see the movie. Or maybe you’re there for the gratuitous boob shots and Jessica Alba in her panties. I admit, I was pleased to see Chelan Simmons topless, although almost every movie she’s in features such pleasures. As for Alba’s underwear, the internet will give you far better, and longer-lasting shots of her various dainty underthings. No, this movie is supposed to be a Dane vehicle. Too bad he wasn’t in it much.
The bad writer was in the movie plenty, however, forcing Dane to gum his way through 96 minutes of writer Josh Stolberg’s script. That Stolberg used to write for television is far too evident. TV writing itself isn’t bad, it’s just different, and not easily transitioned to a larger format. On the other hand, maybe this will all work out in the end—Stolberg will go back to writing for TV, and Dane will get his own show. See you at 4:30.
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