Fans of Lindsay Lohan’s 2003 Disney hit, “Freaky Friday,” will undoubtedly enjoy her latest – and reportedly last – fluff film, “Just My Luck,” because, well, they’re pretty much the same movie. Trade out wannabe hipster Jamie Lee Curtis for young up-and-comer Chris Pine, tweak the story to include an exchange of luck instead of bodies, and presto-chango, you have a seemingly brand new story in which the redheaded protagonist still learns an important life lesson at the end of the film. Of course, it’s not that simple, but eager teenage girls will hardly connect the dots when comparing the two films. And while there’s nothing particularly wrong with “Just My Luck,” there’s nothing especially noteworthy either. In fact, it’s just your average Lohan fare, but this time it marks the actress’ eventual coming-of-age with a tad more maturity than her past projects.
Lohan stars as Ashley Albright, a lowly intern at a thriving New York PR firm who receives the chance of a lifetime when she’s given the task of planning a charity masquerade ball for one of their most important clients, record executive Damon Phillips (Faizon Love). This isn’t the first time Ashley has been blessed, and while she may not exactly be Lady Luck, she’s definitely bumped shoulders with her on more than a few occasions. On the other side of town is Jake (Chris Pine), an extremely unlucky guy who’s working as a janitor at the local bowling alley until he can score his band (played by Brit Pop group McFly) a record deal. Everything changes, however, when the two meet and kiss at the company masquerade ball (wearing masks, no less), and until Ashley can track down her mystery man, she’s stuck with a nasty run of bad luck.
There’s not much more to the film than this, with a majority of the script dedicated to physically humiliating Lohan through a series of ridiculous set pieces, including a prison scene that isn’t used just once, but twice throughout the course of the film. Unfortunately, a lot of the material isn’t very humorous, and while it’s a shame to see Lohan bomb so hard comically, audiences will be refreshed to see that her acting skills have matured considerably since her last film. She’s also amazing to look at, and for those of you who don’t find Lohan incredibly attractive needn’t look any further than her onscreen gal pals (played by Samaire Armstrong and Bree Turner) to make you sweat. They’re all smoking hot and certainly help to detract from the mind-numbing mediocrity of the film.
And while you would think that one look at Donald Petrie’s resume (which includes such classics as “Grumpy Old Men,” “Miss Congeniality” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”) would help to calm any concerns about the film, his other movies (like “My Favorite Martian” and “Welcome to Mooseport”) have been colossal disasters. Still, despite the many criticisms, as well as the actress’ decision to start taking on more serious roles, the teenage comedy will forever be Lohan’s bread and butter. Mixed crowds of adolescent girls and horny adult males will still fill the seats no matter how bad of a critical response it receives, and though I certainly don’t feel fortunate to have seen it, “Just My Luck” isn’t a complete waste of time.
2.5 / 5 Stars
Starring: Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, Samaire Armstrong
Director: Donald Petrie
DVD Review:
Words you never want to see while watching the bonus material on a new DVD: “More features on other side of disc.” Of course, it’s a completely different situation when both sides are loaded with extras, but when they only add up to fifteen minutes in length, it begs to ask the question “why did they even bother”? The lame supply of extras includes a two-minute featurette about costume design (“Look of Luck”) and a behind-the-scenes with the band McFly, while three deleted scenes also appear, one of which features an entertaining supporting turn by Stephen Tobolowsky.
