I thought the ads for Dane Cook’s latest "comedy," Good Luck Chuck, looked sorta familiar when they started appearing recently — and now I know why. Variety reminds me that Good Luck Chuck‘s prominent tagline ("Sometimes love blows") is almost identical to the one currently being used by Ben Stiller’s new one, The Heartbreak Kid ("Love blows"). Plagiarism alert!
Just kidding. Variety chalks the similarity up to sheer coincidence, and I have no doubt they’re right. These taglines are too dumb to be worth stealing — and that points to a more fundamental truth about both of these movies. Namely, they both look absolutely awful! Judging by their trailers, Chuck is about a guy (Cook, at right) who discovers that every woman he has sex with ends up ditching him and meeting her soulmate immediately afterward due to some sort of unholy curse (?), while Heartbreak follows a dude (Stiller, left) who marries an apparently awesome lady only to realize that she’s actually a shrill harpy who’s nowhere nearly as hot as this other woman he meets on their honeymoon. In a way, they’re showing two inverse sides of the thickheaded premise which their taglines so eloquently express: Casual promiscuity and serious relationships alike cause major headaches for fun-loving bros, primarily because both ways of life require dealing with those craaaaaaazy women. How charming. Maybe if the films’ producers spent more time coming up with original comedy scenarios, they wouldn’t run into these problems with their billboard copy…
But please, feel free to stick up for either one of these apparent laugh-free zones if you think I’m wrong! Responses in the form of well-worn two-word aphorisms preferred though not required.
The Heartbreak Kid was the worst screenplay that Neil Simon penned and the original version of the movie which starred Charles Grodin was even more horrible. The trailer for the remake looks retarded. Can’t Ben Stiller do anything else besides act annoying?
I already saw “The Heartbreak Kid” on the Paramount lot and it was almost painful. Maybe Farrelly Bros. fans will like it, and it has one ferociously funny scene, but on the whole I thought it was awful. When I worked at Lionsgate, I had the displeasure of reading the script for “Good Luck Chuck” last year. I couldn’t get past page 4. Hopefully the movie plays better than the script.
Good Luck Chuck looks awful, but I laughed so hard at the trailer for Heartbreak Kid when they see the old couple in a restaurant and the girl goes “That could be us in 10 years” and Ben thinks it would be a little more than 10 years and she says “you’re probably right, I’m really bad at math!”
The thing is the “Good Luck Chuck” TV spots are even more awful. You can’t tell that it’s about a guy who women sleep with because they meet their soulmate right afterward. It’s just a montage of Jessica Alba pratfalls…just looks awful.
Also, I have to take issue with your gripe about the two taglines. Good Luck Chuck is saying that “love blows” some of the time, but not ALL the time, whereas “Heartbreak” is saying that love just blows all around. BIG difference. (Seriously though, you’re right about both those taglines being too idiotic to steal.)
Wow… that Heartbreak Kid movie really does look awful !
For “Good Luck Chuck” each appearance just consists of the host fawning over Alba’s looks and Cook amking lame erection jokes.
Also Stephanie T. I don’t want to start anything but please don’t use the word retarded. I find it offensive.
You can’t pay me to see Good Luck Chuck, but Heartbreak Kid I will give the benefit of the doubt. Farrelly brothers are really quite consistent and overlooked for being not only funny but heartfelt and insightful. Everytime I’ve seen a concept that I think is ridiculous (Stuck on You, Shallow Hal) it turns out to be a hidden gem. They are far more than their reputation for gross-out humour. They celebrate the freak in all of us, if that isn’t too pretentious. That said, I thought Fever Pitch was a disapointment.
The Variety review of “The Heartbreak Kid” makes it sounds like “Citizen Kane: Redux.” They literally had only amazing things to say. Does…not…compute…
for having such good casts (who doesn’t love Ben Stiller to death?) these look like the two cheesiest slap-stick romantic comedies ever!
I’ll take Stiller over Cook any day of the week, but with Alba in the cast, I might have to see both.
Good Luck Chuck sounds original enough.
I’ll pass.
Cook and Alba can’t act!
Simon, you’re right! They both look like utter shite!
Simon, you’re right! They both look like utter shite!