What would occur if There’s Something About Mary, Wedding Crashers and the recent surge in all cinema penguin-related (i.e., March of the Penguins, Surf’s Up, Happy Feet) were somehow all combined via a strange, Hollywood in vitro fertilization process? Well, something a lot like Good Luck Chuck, new to DVD this week. A reverse-engineered, willfully loud and wacky slice of tried-and-true juvenile formula that is only intermittently, distractingly entertaining in the same way that a foghorn placed just behind your ear is frightening, it’s the filmic screen equivalent of a jukebox cover band plowing through the CD collection of your most impressionable (and regrettable) days of youth.
One of a number of recent offerings from the very busy (pre-pregnancy) Jessica Alba, Chuck rolled to a semi-respectable $35 million domestically last fall — not bad really when you consider that the film’s current RottenTomatoes.com rating stands at a rock bottom 3 percent. DVD special features include a couple mini-featurettes — one exploring the special effects work that went into creating a visual gag involving a woman with three breasts, another stacking up all of Dane Cook’s sex scenes — as well as a back-slapping audio commentary track with Cook, director Mark Helfrich, writer Josh Stolberg and producer Mike Karz. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.
