Today’s Prayer Focus
MOVIE REVIEW

Good Luck Chuck

MPA Rating: R-Rating (MPA) for sequences of strong sexual content including crude dialogue, nudity, language and some drug use.

Reviewed by: Adam Warren
GUEST REVIEWER

Moral Rating: Extremely Offensive
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience: Adults, Teens
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Length: 1 hr. 36 min.
Year of Release: 2007
USA Release: September 21, 2007 (wide)
Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate Copyright, Lionsgate
Relevant Issues
Copyright, Lionsgate

Should I save sex for marriage? Answer

How far is too far? What are the guidelines for dating relationships? Answer

How do I know what is right from wrong? Answer

How can I deal with temptations? Answer

What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer

Couple in love. Photo copyrighted
What is true love and how do you know when you have found it? Answer

Sex, Love and Relationships
Learn how to make your love the best it can be. Christian answers to questions about sex, marriage, sexual addictions, and more. Valuable resources for Christian couples, singles and pastors.

Featuring Dane Cook, Jessica Alba, Dan Fogler, Michelle Harrison, Simone Bailly
Director Mark Helfrich
Producer Tracey Edmonds, Mike Karz, Brian Volk-Weiss
Distributor Distributor: Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. Trademark logo.Lionsgate (Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.)

“True love is a blessing and a curse. She’s the blessing. He’s cursed.”

Here’s what the distributor says about their film: “It all started when Charlie Kagan was ten years old. Breaking the cardinal rules of spin-the-bottle, Charlie refused to lip-lock with a demented Goth girl—and she put a hex on him. Now, twenty-five years later, Charlie (Dane Cook) is a successful dentist… and still cursed. While his plastic surgeon best friend, Stu (Dan Fogler), pursues as many of his patients as possible, Charlie can’t seem to find the right girl. Even worse, he discovers at an ex-girlfriend’s wedding that every woman he’s ever slept with has found true love—with the next guy after him. Before he knows it, Charlie’s reputation as a ‘good luck charm’ has women—from sexy strangers to his overweight receptionist—lining up for a quickie.

But a life filled with all sex and no love has Charlie lonelier than ever—that is, until he meets Cam (Jessica Alba). An accident-prone penguin specialist, Cam is as hard-to-get as she is beautiful. But when a genuine romance develops, Charlie realizes he’s got to find a way to break his good-luck curse… before the girl of his dreams winds up with the next guy she meets.”

“Good Luck Chuck” is a romantic comedy with content targeting a largely male audience. The tale of “Good Luck Chuck” begins when Chuck (Dane Cook) is 10 years old and refuses to kiss a Goth girl. She then places a curse on Chuck making him a lucky charm for women wanting to find their one true love, however only after they have made love to him. He is basically the four leaf clover of sex.

Chuck becomes the center of female sexual attention when at the wedding of an ex-girlfriend she proclaims him to be the reason she found her true love, citing him as her lucky charm. This gains him the attention of what seems to be every single woman in the city.

At the wedding, Chuck meets accident prone Cam Wexler (Jessica Alba) who provides much of the film’s physical slapstick comedy. She was a joy to watch, for the most part. There are few comedies where a woman provides the slapstick entertainment.

Unfortunately, the film suffers from the many worldly values that dictate its view of true sexuality. During the film, Chuck comes to many crossroads and after getting some not so great advice from his long time friend Stu (Dan Fogler), who to me was a great representation of the serpent in the garden of Eden, he tantalizes Chuck with questions… would it really be that bad? …go on you know you want to. This often leads Chuck to make poor decisions.

The message of the film becomes confused with the many images of sex; it seems to say that sex with many different partners is fine because you should try before you buy, and who knows, your next one is right around the corner. It makes the statement that sex with many partners bears no consequences.

Q&A: What is fornication? Answer

What are the consequences of sexual immorality? Answer

Offensive Content— “Good Luck Chuck” was one of the most difficult movies I had to sit through as a Christian. There is very little violence, however there is enough violence of the mind to grieve the Holy Spirit within every Christian. I had to close my eyes at the amount of nudity and sex scenes which were in this movie. In fact, this film is very much porn which has swooped underneath the radar of classification officials.

There is a large amount of profanity, with the film inventing new ways to refer to sexual organs in a rude and crude manner, and I lost count of the amount of times the Lord’s name was taken in vain. One scene shows a male getting what would have only be described as raped if it had happened to a female. Women are presented as predatory and sexual objects, all at the same time, with Chuck finding the one woman who continues to turn down his advances the one he feels to be for him. There are references to all sorts of sexual behaviour which I will not mention here, as it is all too explicit.

There are scenes which will disturb you, and it is definitely not a film I would take a child to.

The movie tries to redeem itself at the end, however one year later does not compare to 50 years later and never will.

Violence: Mild / Profanity: Extreme / Sex/Nudity: Heavy

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.


Viewer CommentsSend your comments
Negative—Knowing that this movie was about a man who has sex with multiple women, I knew it was unreasoable for me to see this film. However, I gave in to temptation and peer-pressure and neglected the urging of the Holy Spirit. The opening scene was distrurbing enough—pre-teen children playing 'Seven Minutes in “Heaven.” 'Extremely vulgar and sexual terms were being used by the children, and one little girl is shown in a black, leather bra attempting to seduce young Charlie (Chuck). She then uses witchcraft on Chuck, causing him to be cursed (every woman he sleeps with will fall in love with the NEXT man she meets). When the movie switches to the present, no hesitation is made before clothing is abandoned and viewers see a topless woman wearing next-to-nothing to cover her bottom half. Chuck is soon seen wearing only boxer-briefs with a graphic visual of arousal. His best friend, a plastic surgeon specializing in breast augmentation, is probably the biggest pervert portrayed in the film. A scene is shown where he is lusting over a topless woman in his office, and pictures of his “work” are displayed on the wall. Once Chuck realizes the curse put on him is true, the movie shows viewers the most graphic portrayals of sex I have ever seen. Jessica Alba’s comes very close breaking her promise of never becoming nude in a film. There wasn’t much to be imagined after the movie ended. Even the credits were appauling, as another topless woman is displayed and a “home video” of Chuck and Cam(Alba) is shown in which Chuck performs many graphic, sexual actions on a stuffed, toy penguin.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 3
T. Taylor, age 21
Negative—I actually worked as a extra on this movie and had no idea until working on it how vulgar it was going to be until I watched the movie. First off, the director was one of the most rude and egotistical men I have encountered and kept yelling at his staff to move the girls with big chests to where the camera would pan the most. When I arrived on set, I noticed all the other females were models and most with boob jobs. The sexual dialogue and scenes were plentiful. I love a good comedy, but sadly these days it seems you can’t find one that doesn’t try to get most of its laughs with crude and sexual humour that is both degrading to both men and women! They make women look like nothing more than sexual objects and men like stupid pervs that have nothing better to do than reduce women to body parts.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 1
Jenn, age 36
Negative—My wife and I decided to go see this movie with only the previews as a guide to our decision. The movie, in its entirety, was probably the most evil movie I have seen in years. The movie begins with what seems to be an innocent game of spin the bottle, and ends up being a platform for some sick twisted “friend of Chuck” to talk about sex in a very adult way. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, you get an ear full of sex talk, cursing, and even some witchcraft. I have never seen a film, that was released into public theaters, try and put so much filth into a two hour period. The film used Chuck’s friend, who happens to be a plastic surgeon specializing in breast implants, to insert profanity about sex and breasts at every waking opportunity.

The basic plot of the film is that when Chuck was young, he gets “Hexed” by a young gothic witch because he refused to have sex with her at a teenager’s party. The curse is that Chuck will never want to commit to marriage… but that’s not all. The other part of the curse is that whoever sleeps with Chuck will get married to the next guy that asks them out. Well, needless to say, women begin to find this out and come knocking at his door in droves. There is a very graphic (soft pornography) scene, in which Chuck reluctantly decides to have sex with all of the women. Add on top of this masturbation, phone sex, sex in all positions, and every kind of nudity, even mutant nudity.

The bottom line is that this movie is full of everything the “world” has to offer, and no one benefits from watching this movie. We only finished watching the movie with the hope of some sort of decent point. Sadly, the only point the movie tried to make is that Chuck was some sort of “good guy savior” for all of those women who couldn’t find a husband on their own. Please don’t go see this movie, because it is wrong and evil on every basis of who a Christian is or should be.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 2
Tom, age 28
Negative—This is the most offensive movie I have ever seen! I realized it was going to be very offensive. I have never walked out of a movie in my life. I would have, if I hadn’t come with another person. I’m shocked at what they allowed in this R-rated movie. It is by far the most offensive R I have ever seen. Shocking is more the word. Beyond the incredibly graphic sex scenes, they insinuated beastiality. I love Dane Cook and Jessica Alba and am just jaw to the floor that anyone this popular would be in a movie like this. I am not the best Christian and am still just shocked and disgusted that I watched this.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 3
Rebecca, age 21
Negative—My husband and I went to see it because I was told that it wasn’t “Bad” Hah—that’s a laugh—it was so awful right from the beginning that we had to leave. I have found that if you stay after being offended right off the bat, you will continue to be offended all the way to the end. Then have to go home and repent for watching it. If I allow myself to watch these when everything inside me says—Leave, leave now, I will quench the Holy Spirit inside of me and grow a hard heart. I suggest that you don’t even go to see this one. I love Jessica Alba, and I am very dissapointed that she did this film. Be blessed and don’t forget to pray for the Hollywood Actors.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 3
Amy Short, age 34
Negative—This is by far one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. Not only was it practically a porno, it was unbearably unfunny. I’ve yet to meet anyone who actually enjoyed it. Stay far away.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 1½
Dustin, age 20
Negative—…If you are a Christian, skip this one. It’s all pretty much gross out humor, a terrible worldview, tons of pornographic-like sex and nudity, and it wasn’t even all that funny. The only thing I can commend is that at least Jess Alba didn’t show much of anything. I wish I had skipped it.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 3
Kevin, age 36
Negative—Wow, is all I can say about this movie. Horrible, offensive, not worth the watch. I’ve gone through a few of these movies reading reviews and notice the younger people, 15-20 (around my age), often times will give a downright disturbing movie a positive rating. Noting that it’s not the obscenities that matter, or the cursing, or the sex scenes, but the “Moral Value” of the story. If you are truly a Christian the first 10 minutes of this movie would cause you to cringe. To be totally fair I’ll give a recap of the movie. A guy named “chuck” has sex with women. The next man they date turns out to be the love of their life, thus chuck is a good luck charm. Women seek him for sex throughout the movie in hopes of finding their mate… I can truthfully say the only reason I laughed during the film was thinking how ironic it was that I was watching this. We all make mistakes, this was mine for the day.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 1
Martin, age 19
Negative—I went to this movie to see something funny. Instead I found it very offensive and just plain absurd. It should ahve been rated R18+. I was going to walk out, but thought that the nudity would have died down. I was actually embarrassed for the couple behind us. I could not sit through this movie with anyone, yet alone a male. Seeing that many topless females and sex scenes was just disappointing and disturbing for an MA15+. I regret not leaving half way through.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 2
Emma, age 18, Australia
Negative—I dragged my husband to this based on the previews and wish I hadn’t. It was extremely offensive. This movie is porn with a plot. I had to see what ended up happening to Cam with my hand over my eyes for, probably, a third of the movie. It grieved my spirit to see the attitude toward sex and love-especially as a newlywed.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Tasha, age 28
Negative—Unbelievable !!! This movie is not only offensive but is also againist every thing Jesus taught. My wife and I had rented it not knowing that it was appalling. We were very uncomfortable with it in the beginning of the film where the witchcraft and spin the bottle was taking place and tried to think maybe it would get better, but just could not allow ourselves to open any doors to the enemy. We got to the part where the girls were in his office waiting for him… It was so graphic and X-rated, the only thing left out was the actual penetration. We turned it off, and I took it back the very next morning. Don’t waste your time seeing this movie. As a Christian, this is all about the world and has nothing meaningful to offer at all.
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: 3
Michael, age 42
Comments from young people
Negative—This movie was so beyond offensive it’s almost unbelievable. I went to see this movie as a first date with a new friend. The only indication I had about what the movie was about was what was in the previews. I had no on Earthly idea that this movie would be so disgusting. Entertainment is not the word to use for this movie. The sex scenes alone were enough to make me wish I had never went that night. It was so embarrassing to sit there with someone (of the opposite sex) and watch women skimp across the screen topless and see Dane Cook have sex with countless women. The nudity was inexcusable. I am 17 and am saving myself for marriage, never seen a man naked, and do not plan to until my wedding night… this movie almost ruined that. The only thing that kept me from seeing Dane Cook’s… private region were naked women. This is not a movie for a Christian to see. Not only did I feel sick to my stomach the whole movie, but I felt I demoralized myself from this two hour (near) porno. This is not a movie to spend your money or your time on. Unless you are wanting to see countless naked women, Dane Cook having sex with all of them, seeing the sex scenes, and hearing the most disgusting words uttered by human lips… do not waste your time.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 1
Arielle, age 17
Positive—I can’t believe no one that commented thought that this movie was funny. I went to see it with a couple of my friends and I thought that it was hilarious. Sure, there was a lot of sex and nudity but so what? It was still funny. And not every movie has to have a moral, some can be made just for entertainment.
My Ratings: Offensive / 4
Kristina, age 16
Negative—First of all, let me just say that this is in some ways a reply to Kristina, who said that the movie was funny and only entertainment, so we shouldn’t take it so seriously. I agree to a certain extent, for I have also seen movies that are funny, yet in many ways offensive, but everyone I know who has seen “Good Luck Chuck” (even non Christians) did not find it either funny nor entertaining. Even non believers were shocked by the extreme nudity it showed and the graphic sex scenes. What I’m trying to say here is that if the movie had even a slightly interesting plotline, or even just better actors, I could in some ways see why Hollywood made it. But the story line is just a way to get lots of sex into the movie, the actors/actresses aren’t very good, and when the directors did not know how to continue at a certain spot, they simply decided to show extremely long and graphic sequences of the main characters sex life to make up for a unbelievable and stupid plot line. Though Hollywood makes many offensive movies a year, some of them can actually be funny. Take, for example, “Georgia Rule.” Now I know many would disagree with me, but I truly enjoyed that movie for it showed relationships as they really can be, and are, in some situations, without all the sugarcoating. “Georgia Rule” did have a lot of offensive material, but if you look deeper you can actually see that there is a message that the movie is trying to portray. Also, the characters in the movie all learn lessons, which in some ways makes up for some of the offensive material (Of course, I rather watch the movie without any of the offensive material, but to be quite honest where can you find movies like that?) Movies like “Good Luck Chuck,” however, are unrealistic, gross to watch, and simply foul. I cannot recommed this movie to anyway, no matter what your age.
My Ratings: Extremely Offensive / 2
Anynomous, age 17