June 1, 2006

Lindsay Lohan Movie: Better Than a Sharp Stick In The Eye

just my luck
Summer is the best because it means summer Fridays and summer Fridays mean full on permission (from us to us) to watch crappy movies in the middle of the afternoon. Ahh, it is the sweet life. Though we hadn't officially begun the summer half day ritual last week because it was pre-Memorial Day, we still were encouraged to vacate our office at 3:00 pm and thus just barely caught a 3:30 pm downtown of the Lindsay Lohan vehicle, Just My Luck. Balcony seating, smuggled in Diet Coke and special treat Toblerone bar (we're vicariously eating for poor, troubled Linds) -- does it get any more choice?

Oddly enough, even in this ideal situation we encountered something we hardly expected. The movie wasn't half bad. Sure, the premise is weak (lucky girl looses her luck to unlucky boy with a masked kiss then must find him again to regain said luck) but the blithe charm of both Ms. Lohan and her co-star Chris Pine actually carried the day. They're both cute and personable on screen, which is actually more than we can say for a certain supporting player previously from the O.C. (Samaire Armstrong, your 15 minutes are up, girl!). Plus, the film has the advantage of being quite downtown and Eee Vee centric. Linds's character lives in the most beautiful building on Fifth Avenue (same layer cake stone facade as Kate Hudson in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days), Chris Pine's character lives on Ludlow Street, starts working down in Tribeca, there's mention of the Knitting Factory and the girlfriends live in a walk up above the Dumpling Man on St. Mark's. Sure, they randomly constructed a set on Ludlow for a Bowling Alley/Bar, which would never fly in that hipness arena but you can't fault them for at least trying to be sorta, kinda genuine.

While we wouldn't go so far as recommend going out of your way to see this movie, it's surely better than a poke in the eye and if it happens to come into your periphery sometime soon on cable or whatnot, you don't have to turn away in disgust. That may seem like an oddly specific way to put our Cinecultist stamp of approval on a new release but you'd be surprised at how many times those very circumstances come up in real life.

Posted by karen at June 1, 2006 11:34 PM