There was a time when Dane Cook was funny. His comedy could be called revolutionary, in a sense, where he didn't insult people, only taking small, minuscule elements of normal life and manically providing a caricature in stand-up form. His popularity was achieved in a grass-roots form, accumulating over one million fans on Myspace before his album entitled "Retaliation" was even released, which cracked the top ten best-selling albums in its first week of release.
All of this can't dispel the fact that he is now annoying and no longer funny, not only in his stand-up but also in "Good Luck Chuck."
Charlie Kagan (Cook) is a simple dentist whose office is across the hall from the cosmetic surgery office of his friend Stu (Dan Fogler). When Charlie attends a wedding and the bride, whom he "dated," calls him the lucky charm to falling in love. Soon every woman wants to "date" him.
And when I say "date," I mean have sex.
Also strolling into his life is Cam (Jessica Alba), a beautiful lover of penguins and clumsiness. Cam has a knack for tripping over chairs, slipping off and ice ramp and chipping teeth. Charlie starts to fall for her but can't seem to do it.
You see, when he was younger, during a game of Spin the Bottle, a little Goth girl put a hex on him, cursing him that he will never fall in love. Love will only fall all around him and not on him.
This explains why every woman wants to have him: every woman who has sex with Charlie marries the next man they date.
All of these may seem silly-and it is. The absurd nature of the movie is lackluster and nothing more. We are supposed to understand that Charlie starts out as a truly good-hearted, sensitive man, and then becomes Mr. Playboy. Basically, Cook starts the movie against his own type, then becomes the misogynistic man he is on stage.
Alba is simply unbelievable...in a bad way. She also goes against her type playing more than just eye candy, but can you really buy her as the female version of Jack Tripper? Sure, she's pretty, but I just couldn't buy into it.
The one person who did provide a glimmer of hope in this movie was Fogler, previously seen in Balls of Fury." Like in that film, Fogler shows some potential to comic genius, but, like "Balls," doesn't have much humor in a lame script to showcase his capabilities.
All in all there will be one sect that will come out in droves for this film: Cook's fans.
I'm no longer one of them.
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