With thanks to Blockbuster Online, I just finished watching Good Luck Chuck on Blu-ray disc. One of a few movies that Blockbuster.com was able to ship out to me this past week. Good Luck Chuck was a Lions Gate film (small studio), who happened to be aligned with the Blu-ray said in the high definition movie disc format wars. Not having seen the movie in the theatrical run, I did want to see it in high def format, and was curious how the movie would do on Blu-ray disc.
Before I get too far along here, I should make clear that I'm not a fan of Dane Cook who plays the titular role in this movie. I find his humor just rambling and well, un-funny. With that said, he does well in his role for this movie. Not great, but not bad. Cook plays the role of Charlie 'Chuck' Logan. Chuck is a cursed man and has been since turning down the goth girl who desperately wanted him back in his much younger (10 years old) school days. After young Charlie spun the bottle and landed on Anisha (goth girl) in his spin, they headed off to the closet where Charlie could barely keep Anisha off him. Spurning Anisha caused her to be so upset that she put a hex on Charlie so that whoever Charlie was with would find their own true love after being with Charlie, with that true love being the next person they went out with.
Early on in the story we see Charlie at a wedding reception where he is being toasted as the lucky charm that helped the bride find her true love. At the same wedding a friend of the bride comes to sit at the same table as Charlie and we meet Cam (Jessica Alba). Not long after the wedding reception word starts spreading that Chuck Logan is a lucky charm for women, and the women start almost literally throwing themselves at Chuck so that they could then go and find 'the one'. Even with this steady stream of female companionship, Chuck feels an attraction for Cam and obviously longs for more out of his relationships than meaningless (for him) sexual encounters. Will fate let these two be happy ever after, or is Charlie destined to spend the rest of his life making women happy as they get ready for find their true loves?
The un-rated version of the movie includes plenty of partial nudity and the requisite language mixed in. The R rating (for the rated version) is certainly deserved as well.
The Blu-ray version of the disc gets mixed reviews from me as well. It is yet another Blu-ray that seems to prevent the ability to bypass the previews. Clicking on the Top Menu button on the remote control results in a message noting 'That operation is not supported here' (or equivalent message). I am no fan of being forced to sit through previews every time I start watching a disc based movie (especially if it's a movie I've seen multiple times, which would, uh, be the kind of movies I would purchase and own). Sadly this 'feature' (an apparent inability to bypass the previews) seems quite prevalent among Blu-ray titles. It is disrespectful towards the viewer and just frustrates me. To be fair, you can skip most of the previews on the disc here just by continually pressing the Next chapter button (fast forward to next chapter). I just wish that was more obvious and that you could achieve the same results by pressing the Top Menu to bypass all of the previews completely.
There is at least one new relatively new feature included on this disc: the ability to bring up the Blu-line slider. The Blu-line slide is an interesting book marking feature that shows your current place in the film and allows for setting book marks easily via tips as to which buttons to press on the remote control. It's a neat feature that makes good use of the Blu-ray Disc remote control for the PS3 (as an example). Press up or down on the control disc on the remote to pop-up the Blu-line slider and check it out.
In addition there are some interesting featurettes and additional content on the disc. Just be aware that those should carry the same rating as the film itself, up to and including being unrated.
