"JUST MY LUCK"
DVD Review
by Kevin Carr
| MOVIE: *** (out of 5 stars)
DVD EXPERIENCE: ** (out of 5 stars) STARRING Lindsay Lohan as ASHLEY ALBRIGHT Chris Pine as JAKE HARDIN Samaire Armstrong as MAGGIE Bree Turner as DANA Faizon Love as DAMON PHILLIPS Missi Pyle as PEGGY BRADEN Chris Carmack as DAVID PENNINGTON Makenzie Vega as KATY PG-13 Studio: 20th Century Fox Directed by: Donald Petrie Back to DVD Review Home |  |
Unlike many critics, I don’t mind a good romantic comedy. While they are often bashed for being too formulaic, I will come to their defense. Like a good pop song, there is a certain art to making a good romantic comedy. Sometimes, it’s a matter of finding the right pieces of the formula, and if that goes wrong, it’s a disaster.
Director Donald Petrie has struck a chord for the right formula. He’s delivered some decent romantic comedies in the past, including “Miss Congeniality” and ‘How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” After running with rom-com staples like Sandra Bullock and Kate Hudson, Petrie has done his big-budget screen test with Lindsay Lohan.
“Just My Luck” focuses on Ashley Albright (Lohan), a young, sexy Manhattanite who has everything going for her. She’s lucky in everything she does – from scratch-off lottery tickets to taxi cab rides. However, when she runs into Jake Hardin (Chris Pine), her good luck is suddenly swapped with his bad luck.
In a matter of hours, Ashley loses her job, her apartment and most of her dignity. Not only is she without her good luck, but she seems to be cursed. Jake, on the other hand, is having everything go right for him for a change. Ashley tries to get her luck back from Jake, but she ends up falling in love in the process.
On a whole, “Just My Luck” works well. It’s formulaic, sure, but it puts the parts of the formula together well. It’s biggest fault is the casting of Lohan, who can be charming and adorable at times, but just isn’t right for this part. The biggest problem Lohan has to overcome here is her age. She just isn’t old enough to be a believable executive in Manhattan. Give her five more years, maybe. But not now.
Her other problem is that she’s gotten so much bad press lately about her partying habits and wild ways that it’s hard to identify with her as the average girl. It reminds me of the problems Jennifer Lopez has had lately connecting with an audience.
Still, if you can look past Lohan’s age and E! rap sheet, there’s a lot of heart in “Just My Luck.” In fact, the real saving grace of this film is Chris Pine, who we most recently saw in “Princess Diaries 2.” Pine, who is relatively unknown in the tabloid press, has a clean image and a charisma on screen that works. Lohan is at her strongest when she’s down on her luck, and Pine comes across immaculately as her white knight.
The DVD comes with only a small selection of special features. There are a handful of deleted and extended scenes. As happens so often, it’s obvious why they cut these scenes as they made the character of Abigail look so naive about her good luck that she lost audience sympathy.
There’s also a featurette on the band McFly, which is given the big screen treatment as a rallying point around the characters. Finally, there’s a relatively standard behind-the-scenes featurette about the making of the film.
Specifications: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. Widescreen (1.85:1). Spanish and French language tracks. Spanish subtitles. English language subtitles for the hearing impaired.
