I picked up Just My Luck hoping for either a guilty pleasure like The Parent Trap which I can’t help but watch every time it plays on ABC Family, or some quality unintentional comedy alla Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights . As my bad luck would have it though, this film was neither. Just My Luck centers around junior publicist Ashley Albright (Lindsay Lohan) whose ridiculously good fortune has landed her with an unbelievably large apartment in New York City, hot guys lining up to ask her out, discount dresses that just happen to be her size, and a power player PR job at the prestigious firm of Peggy Braden. And all this at the whopping age of nineteen, at least that’s how old she looks, though Ashley is presumably just out of college. But hey, the film lost any potential for realism when the first year publicist was given the company credit card for something other than buying her boss coffee.
Because the universe cannot stand someone so perfect, there is accident-prone Jake Hardin (Chris Pine), who is a perfect target for bird doo-doo and any other doo-doo you can think of. Hardin does janitorial work at the local bowling alley while attempting to get the British boy-band McFly discovered by record mogul Damon Phillips (Faizon Love). As the wise Paula Abdul once said, “Opposites attract,” and the two meet at a masquerade ball Ashley has planned for Phillip’s record company that Jake crashes in order to hand off McFly’s demo CD. Jake and Ashley wind up on the dance floor together and become swept up in a miraculous kiss where they not only swap spit, they swap their luck as well.
As Ashley’s life now becomes rife with problems including two stays in jail, a flood in her apartment and losing her job, Jake manages to get his band discovered and land a sweet apartment complete with his own washer and dryer. All the while, I’m wondering whether Lohan is more annoying as Miss Perfect or Miss Pitiful and if I buy Pine as an uber-nerd just because he has baggy pants and glasses.
The film does have some cutesy moments especially for preteens including one fun montage where Ashley kisses twenty different men in her quest to find the man who stole her luck. Overall though, the corny plot mixed with the cheesy slapstick humor ruin the genuine chemistry that Pine and Lohan exhibit on screen. The largest problem with Just My Luck is that none of the six writers who worked on this film was able to distinguish between someone who is unlucky and someone who is just a moron. Allow me to clarify: bird crapping on your head – unlucky. Pouring too much detergent into a washing machine – moron. Trouble getting a cab – unlucky. Saying that a piece of art looks like elephant crap in front of the artist – moron.
If the film was called Just My Common Sense, this would not be an issue, but as the title is about luck the writers should have learned the distinction. Ultimately, Instead of moralizing that you can make your own luck (cheesy but at least positive), this film proves that our lives are completely out of our own control and unless we are fortunate enough to kiss a hot stranger at a party and acquire their good luck, we are all pretty much screwed. The disc offers both widescreen and fullscreen formats for your viewing pleasure but the special features are divided between both sides which meant I had to get up, walk to my TV, flip the disc, return to my TV and press play in order to see all the features. I can safely say it wasn’t worth the effort.
On the full screen side, there are three deleted scenes. That’s right, only three scenes didn’t make the cut in this film. After watching them, I was wondering why the director thought that these three scenes were any worse than the rest of the movie but alas, there was no director’s commentary to explain the decision. Then there is a two-minute featurette called the “Look of Luck” that focuses on the costumes in the film. I really enjoyed when the costume designer Gary Jones mentioned that the dress Lohan wore in the masquerade scene really helped her get into the character. Yeah, because Lohan really needs a dress to teach her to be an over privileged obnoxious biatch.
On the widescreen formatted side, there is a behind the scenes featurette with McFly, the real life boy band, featured in the film… can we say cheap marketing ploy? Good thing the disc has Dolby sound so you can really enjoy the British equivalent of N-Sync! The finale of the movie was filmed at a real McFly concert, and I did enjoy how the director decided to punk his audience and pretend they were canceling the show in order to get good shots of them looking angry. I mean he could have just asked the audience to boo for a second but hey, we can’t expect that sort of quality performance from non-professional actors. Ultimately, you can consider yourself lucky if the DVD just so happens to get lost on its way to your apartment.
