Good Luck, Cook

I was so excited to go to my first sneak preview that I found time to hammer out a review. I went to the preview and half expected Jessica to sit down next to me. And by expected I mean I wanted it so badly.

Good Luck Chuck was everything it was made out to be in the preview – Charlie/Chuck (Dane Cook) is a dentist who becomes the city’s It-Guy when an ex reveals Chuck is a “good luck charm” – any woman who is with him, meets their husband immediately afterwards. While at the wedding of one of his exes, Chuck falls head over heals for Cam (Jessica Alba), a penguin handler who is Murphy incarnate. Chuck thinks Cam is the one but he is afraid the good luck charm will cause him to lose her. So of course Chuck has to do all this crazy stuff that causes Cam to freak out and Chuck has to set off on a quest to find out how to shake the “good luck charm” and a way to get Cam back.

As in all romantic comedies, this movie is driven by the acting and comedic skills of the two stars. Cook is supposed to be funny, and Alba, Alba is expected to be hot. And with that, the writers throw in lots one stand up type gag humor for Cook and lots of hotness for Alba. While it is easy to make Alba look hot, it is surprisingly hard to make Cook’s humor work.

Jessica showed signs of acting growth but her performance was plagued with many more instances where I wanted to bury my head into the ground like an ostrich. But I do appreciate her realization that she cannot make comic book movies forever. She needs to realize she could carve out a niche in romantic comedies – and she does okay here at playing the klutzy Cam. She needs to watch her credibility though too. In a Rolling Stone interview a year ago she said she wanted to do movies where the script did not have the words “and she stood in the shower as water ran down her body.” She is not choosing those types of movies very well – she was in water-drenched clothes and dancing in her panties within minutes.

Dane Cook does not seem like he can pull off romantic comedy fare – at least not with any empathy or depth. The only movie I liked Cook in was Waiting, a movie where he was dominated by his doppelganger, Ryan Reynolds. Cook is kind of screwed there he seems like a broken down version of Reynolds, which is embarrassing because Cook is supposed to be the established comic. In those annoying trivia snippets you read before movies Cook makes the proclamation “I would rather do “x” than do stand up again.” That “x” thing was pretty crazy, it escapes me right now because my thoughts are more along the lines of, “you better go back to stand up.” What hurts Cook is that even his one-liners, which should be well written and delivered, are not. Cook should have it easy – he is basically a pretty boy that supposedly has Adam Sandler “skills.” But Cook makes Sandler look like De Niro.

What really hurt the movie was that it tried to throw in some drama to give the movie depth. But the dramatic parts sucked. The lines were not believable, they were delivered poorly, and they made little sense. The movie seemed to reek of all the bad ways to make an R-rated movie – excessive nudity and a foul talking friend. The characters, despite being previously unseen played stereotypical, run of the mill romantic comedy players. In this regard the movie suffered from the producers not paying any money to fill supporting roles. And forget cameos – whoever made this movie has no friends.

Speaking of the makers of this movie, what were the writers thinking? What was with Dane Cook’s friend? Why did Jessica Alba say she was not ready for an emotional relationship? Did the writers think Alba’s character would not be funny without making her a klutz?

I was pretty harsh on the movie, but it was still a lot of fun. I like seeing Jessica Alba in whatever movie she makes. And I keep thinking Dane Cook deserves “one more chance.” In that regard, all I have to say to Dane Cook is “good luck.” All in all, the movie was fun and that is about it. 5/10 SaltyStix.

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.