Just My Luck

Hollywood loves to make these kinds of movies. A thrown together script, a marketable star, and enough eye candy to keep you interested enough to check the movie out. Movies like this are a dime a dozen, and make enough money that they continue to get made. Just My Luck shows enough warmth and charm to make it worth the $4 at the video store.

Tabloid queen and controversial star Lindsay Lohan plays Ashley, a girl whose simply can't do anything wrong, as she is blessed with excessive good luck. So she has a ridiculously large apartment(even though her job is low level PR). the ability to cab through Manhattan without hitting a red light, a flirtatious manner that draws the most handsome rich young men to her (in elevators no less), and of course some wonderful friends. The only really redeeming thing about Ashley is her friends. There is nothing particularly lovable about her. Jake on the other hand, is the sad sack whose luck is so bad he seems to balance out Ashley's. Working in a bowling alley, repping a band without success, Jake makes the audience feel for him, especially since he has a touching relationship with his niece.

Cue the masquerade ball, which Ashley throws to celebrate her new client, a P-Diddy like record mogul. Jake sneaks in to give the guy his band's CD, meets Ashley, they kiss, and suddenly their luck reverses. And this is where the movie redeems itself. Lohan begins to warm up as Ashley hits the bottom, becoming a more likable and natural character. Despite his incredible luck, Jake is still good hearted, even as he is making his clients, McFly, into the next big thing. Meeting Ashley, he helps her back on her feet before she realizes he was the one who got her luck, and gets it back. But of course, being Hollywood, her friends convince her to give the luck back to Jake in time for McFly to rock the house at their big concert debut. Cue happy ending.

Though the ending seems rushed so all the loose ends get neatly tied up, the film manages to find the warmth and heart that it lacked early on. And despite Lohan's problems off the screen (Lindsay, please please eat something), this film shows enough of the accessible and warm Lindsay from Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen and Mean Girls to make it worth seeing. Overall though, this is a decent film that makes for a good rental. Only buy if you really loved this film or are that big a fan of Lindsay.

A.G. Corwin

St.Louis, MO

Ashley Albright (Lindsay Lohan) has lived a charmed life. When she goes outside in the rain, the sun comes out. She just misses a crowded elevator and winds up alone with a very cute guy. And when she must substitute for her boss at a meeting, she gets a promotion out of the deal.

Jake Hardin (Chris Pine), on the other hand, could use a few good luck charms. He works at the Rock 'n Bowl, a bowling alley with live musical entertainment. He's found a great new group in McFly (playing themselves), but can't get their CD to an executive no matter what he tries.

Ashley has put together a masquerade ball as a promotion for record label Masquerade. Jake tries to crash the party to get McFly's CD to the label's executive just one more time. The two meet, and its love at first site. When they kiss, however, everything changes.

It starts with Ashley breaking the heel of her shoe. Things go downhill from there, and she's soon unemployed and living with her two friends. Jake, meanwhile, gets McFly signed to a record deal and finds himself living in a great, spacious apartment with a limo at his service.

Ashley hates her new life, and tries everything she can think of to get her luck back. Her path keeps crossing Jake's and the two begin to fall in love. What will happen when Ashley learns the truth?

Yeah, I'll admit it. I'm a Lindsay Lohan fan. That coupled with some very funny previews made me want to see this movie. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to its potential.

Obviously with a movie like this, the story is fairly predictable. It falls on the humor and the actors to make the journey to the end well worth watching. The actors do a great job with their material. You can't help but root for Ashley and Jake to find some way to deal with whatever it is they are currently facing. And, of course, you're rooting for them to get together.

Unfortunately, the humor fell flat. While I don't mind slapstick, I don't enjoy humor where the person is in pain or is constantly making a fool out of themselves. The humor in this movie fell almost entirely into those categories. Instead of laughing, I spend most of the movie cringing, waiting for the joke to come.

The ending works well, however. It was very sweet and redeems much of the earlier parts of the film.

The musical group featured in the film, McFly, is a real band. They've just released a CD entitled (surprise, surprise) Just My Luck. I was impressed enough with them to consider buying it but haven't yet.

The movie's ok, and the friend I went to see it with loved it. I just couldn't stop cringing enough to fully enjoy it. Three and a half stars rounded down.

This film is an hour and a half of insults to the intellect.

Read all the reviews here, you know the story. Girl loses good luck to a guy she kisses. Now she has to find this guy and kiss him again. She kisses every guy around town. How pretty.

But the thing about the film that was so annoying was they didn't play it right. Instead of switching luck, they should've had the two characters switch utter stupidity. After Lohan gets the guys "bad luck" she becomes a moron. Apparently falling off of chairs, throwing electrical hairdriers into water and changing light bulbs while they are still illuminated all attribute to "bad luck," when really it was just stupidity. The worst part is, just about every idiot will eat this stuff up and laugh at it. I spent the entire movie predicting what kind of stupid thing was going to happen next.

This movie is written for morons. But at least Lindsay Lohan is in it so every adolescent girl will see it and crave the lifestyle of a rich, no work girl in a sweet studio apartment with her hot friends.

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