BLU-RAY REVIEW

Good Luck Chuck

Featured In Issue 129, March 2008

Picture3
SoundNR
WSR Score2.5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Lionsgate Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
22196
(MPAA Rating):
Unrated
(Rating Reason):
NA
(Retail Price):
$39.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
101
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2007
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
01/15/08
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Mark Helfrich
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital+ Surround EX
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

In an innocent game of spin-the-bottle, ten-year-old Charlie Logan (Cook) breaks the rules when he refuses to kiss a demented Goth girl. Embarrassed by his refusal, the spurned Goth levels a curse at poor Charlie...to a life without finding his true love. Fast forward 25 years to find an adult Charlie, still living with the curse of never finding the perfect girl. To make matters worse, while at an ex-girlfriend's wedding, Charlie finds out he is rumored to be a good luck charm, of sorts. Good Luck Chuck discovers that every woman he has ever slept with has found true love—with the very next guy after him. When Charlie falls in love with an accident-prone penguin specialist named Cam (Alba), he tries desperately to find a way of breaking the dark spell that has followed him for decades. (Stacey Pendry)

The special features that are different from those found on the DVD include the featurettes "Eleanor Skepple" (five minutes), "Good Luck Chuckles" (four minutes), and "Real Life Chuck" (three minutes); five extended scenes; five alternate scenes; two music montages; and the option of adding Bookmarks. The rest of the special features can be found on the DVD and include commentary from the cast and crew; the following featurettes: "Polymastia" (four minutes), "Kama Sutra" (three minutes), "Frank The Penquin Actor" (three minutes), and "All About Penguins" (eight minutes). "Sex Matrix" is an interactvie guide to 16 different sex positions, and there is a five-minute gag reel, two deleted scenes (three on the DVD), three Ad Lib scenarios, and addditional previews.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD exhibits fairly good color fidelity, with vibrant reds and solid blues, but greens have a pastel look that limits their effectiveness. Fleshtones look fairly natural, although they can have an unnaturally pinkish hue at times. There are moments when resolution is quite good, but generally the image will look very soft. Color fringing can be noticed at times. Compression artifacts are recognizable throughout and edge enhancement, while minor, is detectable. The H.264 AVC-encoded Blu-ray Disc shows good black levels, but it has many of the same issues as the DVD, namely, somewhat pinkish fleshtones and lapse of softness. Greens still look somewhat pastel, although they can be more natural looking than in the DVD. (Danny Richelieu)

The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack features a fairly good front stage with nicely mixed music. The surround channels are incorporated fairly well, at times creating a fully detailed soundfield, but much of the time the front and rear stages sound disjunct with limited side-wall imaging. Dialogue is always intelligible, but fidelity is somewhat limited with relatively poor articulation. There is little in the way of deep bass in the soundtrack, and as such, the LFE channel is not incorporated often. The 7.1-channel linear PCM encoding found on the Blu-ray Disc sounds more realistic than the DVD's Dolby encoding, with smoother, more fluid dialogue. There are still the same issues with the mix. (Danny Richelieu)