GOOD LUCK CHUCK — * 1/2 — Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, Dan Fogler; rated R (vulgarity, sex, nudity, profanity, violence, drugs, slurs)
"Good Luck Chuck" is a seriously conflicted movie. It's clear that this Dane Cook vehicle wants to duplicate the successful salty-yet-sweet comic mix of Judd Apatow's "40 Year-Old Virgin," "Knocked Up" and "Superbad."
But if anything, "Chuck" actually goes much further and becomes more sexually crude than Apatow's work, and its attempts to become redemptively cute are way too saccharine.
It doesn't help that the film tries to make a romantic lead out of Cook, a stand-up comedian who still hasn't proven he can act. And nothing here dispels that notion.
Cook stars as Charlie "Chuck" Logan, a dentist who's unlucky in love. He's been cursed — thanks to a preteen encounter with a witch. Any woman he sleeps with him finds true happiness with her next boyfriend.
That's made Chuck quite popular with the ladies, especially those who feel lovelorn. But Charlie is looking for more in a relationship, and he thinks he may have found it with Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba), a sweet but clumsy trainer of penguins.
Of course, he's also convinced that if he gets too close to Cam, she'll find love with someone else. But if he doesn't get close, he'll lose her anyway.
Say what you will about Alba, at least she's a good sport here. Director Mark Helfrich is continually stripping her down to her underwear or having her fall on her face, all of which she takes like a real trooper. But as usual, her performance isn't particularly inspired.
On the other hand, she is miles better than Cook, who tries to smirk his way through most of the film. And his over-the-top flailings make the final third of the movie even more excruciating.
"Good Luck Chuck" is rated R for crude sexual and scatological humor (sight gags and references), strong sexual language (profanity and crude slang), simulated sex and other sexual contact, female and partial male nudity, pratfalls and other comic violence, drug content (marijuana and anesthetics), and slurs based on race and sexual preference. Running time: 96 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com