I have rather a soft spot for teen comedies, much to the hilarity of my serious movie-going friends. IT'S A BOY-GIRL THING is not helping my case any. From the writer of the schmaltzy, formulaic romantic-comedy, KINKY BOOTS, comes another teen comedy that is bland and unfunny to the point of frustration. Think of it as a sort of FREAKY FRIDAY for The OC generation. Samaire Armstrong plays the chick who protests too much and the boorish bloke is played by Kevin Zegers in what must be the biggest career reversal since Ed Norton starred in DEATH TO SMOOCHY. Definitely one to avoid.
IT'S A BOY-GIRL THING was released in the UK on Boxing Day. It opens in the Netherlands on Valentine's Day 2007 and in Belgium on July 4th.
JUST MY LUCK is a weak romantic-comedy vehicle for Lindsay Lohan. The set-up is simple. Li-Lo plays a girl who has literally lived a charmed life. One day, at a masquerade ball, she kisses a guy who has been cursed with bad luck all his life. With that kiss, their fortunes change. The guy - played by Chris Pine (Anne Hathaway's squeeze in Princess Diaries 2) - becomes super lucky and Li-Lo becomes a loser. The movie then predictably follows the two of them as they fall in love with each other. That's it. Now, I'm not against the odd goof-ball teen flick that relies on an unbelievable premise. After all, I really liked She's The Man. But JUST MY LUCK fails on a number of levels. The movie contains not one single laugh, and depite being directed by the same guy who gave us Miss Congeniality, entirely fails to deliver a similar feel-good factor. I don't think the actors are at fault here - although the movie is stocked with more than its fair share of plastic OC rejects. Rather the mechanical grinding through the formula gives the whole production a rather sterile feel. The soul-less quality is magnified by the fact that the flick is a shameless merchandising tool for everything from the Hard Rock cafe to Tide washing up powder. And the biggest marketing ploy of all involves making Li-Lo's boyfriend the manager of, I kid you not, McFly. Frankly, it wasn't the fortune-changing-through-kissing plot line that had me incredulous so much as being asked to believe that McFly were about to kick off the greatest British invasion since The Beatles.
To summarise: you should not watch this movie unless you are a fan of McFly. In which case, you deserve what you get.
JUST MY LUCK is on release in the US, Australia and UK. It hits France on July 5th 2006, and Germany and Austria on August 17th.
