Think of any cliche you've come across in any romantic movie, and chances are that Good Luck Chuck embraces it. A slave to convention, this film attempts to spice up its unimaginative structure with a raunchy streak aiming for a more "mature" audience. But Good Luck Chuck has all the comedic grace of a ten-year-old punk who finds his first "Playboy" issue.

Comedian Dane Cook toplines as Charlie Logan, a dashing dentist who's somehow never managed to lead a successful love life. A childhood hex placed on him by a girl he refused to kiss has pretty much doomed him to singlehood, a strange coincidence that Charlie is just starting to pick up on. He seems to be a perpetual bachelor, and every woman he's dated has gone on to find her soul mate with the next guy she meets. Word of Charlie's reputation spreads fast, and for a while, our hero enjoys jumping into bed with women looking to get hitched. But then he meets Cam (Jessica Alba), an accident-prone cutie who works at an aquatic theme park, after which Chuck scrambles like mad to find a way to beat the hex and become Mr. Right for a change.

Last fall, I complained about how Employee of the Month and its "PG-13" rating were too restrictive on star Cook's wild-man brand of comedy. But Good Luck Chuck proves that upping the raunchiness  doesn't necessarily result in a funnier movie. Although this summer's hits Knocked Up and Superbad tell poignant stories while redefining the word "scatalogical," all the lazier Good Luck Chuck does is whip up a handful of gross-out scenes airlifted from an American Pie sequel and slap on a painfully predictable plot.

There's quite a bit of comedic gold to be mined from the premise (how frustrating would it be to learn that all of your exes have found the guy of their dreams just after you?), but the filmmakers here are content on taking a one-sided and mean-spirited storytelling route. Instead of an amusing tale in which Cook's character deals with his curse while in search of true love, Good Luck Chuck comes across as a parade of ugliness, an unpleasant journey featuring pit stops with acne-ridden behemoths and three-breasted women. Yeah, you can feel the romance just stirring in your soul, right?

Granted, Cook has some definite skill, both as a comic and as an actor (Mr. Brooks was definitely a funky departure). However, although he's likable in Good Luck Chuck, he's still underplaying his own talents, serving as little more than a generic nice guy bad things happen to. I suspect Alba was cast for the sole purpose of putting her in a skin-tight wetsuit, which is all well and good, but it would've been nice to see her matched with a script that didn't make you want to take a swan dive off of the megaplex roof. She's a gorgeous face I always like to see, but Sin City aside, Good Luck Chuck only lengthens her knack for picking some of the worst projects to pop up in. Dan Fogler, last seen as the star of Balls of Fury, is also on hand as Charlie's sex-crazed best friend, whose antics generate a couple of chuckles but still amount to a boring "fat guy screaming" act.

I admit laughing a few times while watching Good Luck Chuck. But my laughs were evoked by the people behind me, whose guffaws were more amusing and enjoyable than anything happening on screen. 

MY RATING: * 1/2 (out of ****)

(Released by Universal Pictures and rated "R" sequences of strong sexual content, including crude dialogue, nudity, language and some drug use.)