If you’re the person who saw Employee Of The Month, chances
are you’re already familiar with US comedian Dane Cook. For the rest of us, Cook is the one who looks like Ryan Reynolds might if he had the cold, dead eyes of a shark, less talent and no charm. But someone in Hollywood has Cook marked for big things, with the result that he’s back, starring opposite Jessica Alba in a gross-out rom-com.
The plot is promising, if utterly silly: any time Cook’s Charlie sleeps with a woman, she goes on to find love with the next man she dates. When this trend is brought to Charlie’s attention, he’s at first sceptical but soon sets out to exploit it at his odious friend Stu’s (Dan Fogler) behest, shagging a succession of desperate lovelies. But when penguin-fancier and chronic klutz Cam (Alba) stumbles into view, he’s so smitten that he realises that his days as a good-luck charm are numbered.
The film’s sexual politics are questionable at best. The lust objects Charlie dates apparently all want to get married asap, and they’re all either drop-dead gorgeous or utterly hideous, with only one token nod to the rest of the female species. Alba’s character is no better drawn - you’d think her unhealthy penguin obsession would be enough of a character flaw to render her decision to date Charlie believable, but just in case you still don’t buy the attraction, they make her so clumsy that she makes Inspector Clouseau look like Rudolph Nureyev. Cue Jessica walking into lampposts, falling into pools and losing her skirt - it’s mildly amusing at best and painful the majority of the time.
It’s not all dreadful, though. Alba may not be the world’s greatest actress but she aces sweet ’n’ cutesy, and the montage of Charlie’s marathon shagging endeavours in an effort to disprove the curse is hilarious. Some of the romancing between the frustrated Charlie and the seductive Cam even becomes quite sweet - but soon Fogler’s irritating Stu reappears to remind us why we hate the film. The result is a clichéd comedy that relies entirely on the good looks of its stars to get by.