Love him or hate him, Dane Cook seems to be around to stay. The stand-up comic and MySpace phenomenon has wedged his way into the Hollywood mainstream, willing and able to make an ass out of himself in order to achieve some modicum of film success. Granted, he hasn't quite found the perfect script just yet (although his turn in Waiting ... was solid) but Good Luck Chuck is miles ahead of Employee of the Month.

It helps that Chuck is much nastier and edgier than Employee, which more or less stifled its weirder, darker impulses in favor of a (relatively) squeaky clean PG-13 rating. Here, with an R rating at their backs, Cook, director Mark Helfrich and screenwriter Josh Stolberg go for broke, mixing raunch with sweetness to mostly good effect.

Cook stars as Charlie Logan, a nice guy who can't seem to lock down a steady girlfriend -- whenever he sleeps with a woman, she breaks up with him soon after and goes on to marry the love of her life. It earns him the titular nickname and the envy of his hornball friend Stu (Dan Fogler, much more amusing here than in Balls of Fury), whose job as a plastic surgeon is primarily a vehicle for him to meet women. Enter Cam (Jessica Alba), a penguin-obsessed young woman who clicks with Charlie, but forces him to examine just what he wants out of a relationship and whether or not sleeping with her is worth the risk of losing her forever.

Good Luck Chuck is pretty much a standard rom-com, but spiced up considerably with a dose of raw, raunchy sexuality that would make the Superbad kids sit up and take notice. Cook bares all -- literally -- and seems far more comfortable in this not-for-kids milieu, leaving one to wonder why he'd seek out projects with a tamer sensibility. As the hapless Charlie, you begin to see just how Cook really could make the transition into a bona fide star; he's helped immensely by his chemistry with Fogler -- less so with Alba. Good Luck Chuck is a well-intentioned, gleefully dirty romantic comedy that manages not to overstay its welcome and keep the laughs coming at an acceptable clip.

As for the film's "unrated" status, the theatrical run time was 96 minutes, and this version clocks in at 101 minutes. Having missed the flick in theaters, I couldn't point to what comprises the additional five minutes, but I'm guessing most of it involves nudity, since there's plenty of naked female flesh on display.

The Video:

Immaculate as the content is filthy, Good Luck Chuck sparkles throughout, thanks to its mostly flawless 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which according to the IMDb, is opened up a bit from its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 (purists, light the torches!). Nevertheless, there's hardly anything worth fussing over -- this is a very solid image.

Matching the visuals step for step, the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is clean, clear and only slightly immersive, but since this film is driven primarily by its pop-song soundtrack and coarse dialogue, that's forgivable. An optional Dolby 2.0 stereo track is on hand, as are optional English and Spanish subtitles.

The gregarious Cook, along with director Helfrich, producer Mike Karz and screenwriter Stolberg, sits for an engaging commentary track. A quartet of featurettes -- "Polymastia," "Kama Sutra," "Frank the Penguin Actor" and "All About Penguins" -- are presented in anamorphic widescreen and playable separately or all together for an aggregate of roughly 18 minutes. The "Sex Matrix" (which will be a BIG hit with all of the teenage males picking this disc up) allows you to sample one of 16 quick clips of copulation from the film; a five minute, 35 second gag reel is presented in anamorphic widescreen; three deleted/alternate scenes, which includes an alternate ending, presented in anamorphic widescreen and playable separately or all together for an aggregate of roughly two minutes, 32 seconds with roughly eight minutes of ad-libs (split between the characters Stu, Charlie and the airport security guard) presented in anamorphic widescreen completing the disc.

Good Luck Chuck is pretty much a standard rom-com, but spiced up considerably with a dose of raw, raunchy sexuality that would make the Superbad kids sit up and take notice. Dane Cook bares all -- literally -- and seems far more comfortable in this not-for-kids milieu, leaving one to wonder why he'd seek out projects with a tamer sensibility. As the hapless Charlie, you begin to see just how Cook really could make the transition into a bona fide star; he's helped immensely by his chemistry with Dan Fogler -- less so with Jessica Alba. Good Luck Chuck is a well-intentioned, gleefully dirty romantic comedy that manages not to overstay its welcome and keep the laughs coming at an acceptable clip. Recommended.