Review: The Lucky One

Took the girls over the pass to Durango for a girls day and saw The Lucky One starring Zac Efron and Taylor Schilling. The film brings to life another of  bestselling author Nicholas Spark's novels, which quiet a few have been turned into movies, starting with...

Which is about, sorry for the spoiler, about finding love in an unusual place, momentarily, before someone dies. Then came ...

also finding love before someone dies, except this time it is quick and unexpected instead of long and slow... Then comes....

which is about finding love, again, before someone dies, of old age this time. Then there was...

which is about.....finding unexpected love before someone dies, quick this time. Then comes along...

About Not finding love for a long time because of duty and guilt, while someone else dies. Followed by...

which is also in a nutshell about love and life waiting until someone dies.

Do you see a pattern in Nicholas Sparks movies. So here comes The Lucky One. Does someone die? Should I tell you? Of course I will, but first let me get up the red Alert Spoiler is coming warning.

SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT

No one dies in The Lucky One..............well, that isn't really true actually, cause the family Efron comes to, to find "girl" is grieving the loss of a son who was also a soldier and didn't come home, thus why Efron finds the picture on the battlefield, but the lovers prevail until the very end....and then someone dies ( But it is a minor character, so don't worry, it just gives a clean tidy ending to the story)

The Lucky One wasn't a "bad" movie, it just wasn't a good movie. It didn't inspire me, give me anything to chew on and think about when I left the movie theater. It, like really all of Spark's stories, took the easy way, the cliche'  way of pulling at our heart strings- death, grief, cancer- all bring up the emotional Geiger counter really fast without a lot of effort in the writing side. His stories really are just a matter of "same song, different verse". He has created "a universe" and now it is just a matter of changing the names and the setting of the characters and reaping the huge financial benefits from what Hollywood considers a "sure thing". I just wish they would start taking chances again!

Something else I find odd- that will definitely be a post in itself- what is happening with the trailers of these let us say- not very meaty offerings Hollywood is trying to ram down our throats, with the lie that they are giving us something new, refreshing and well, good! We are getting the WHOLE story in the trailer- no longer is it a teaser, a peek of just a few of the good bits, with the allure of coming to see the whole movie to get the rest of this good interesting story. Which by the way is what a trailer should offer. Now, we usually get ALL of the few really interesting bits, cause there ain't anymore and lately, even the endings! The Lucky One Trailer to me is not trying to tantalising us into coming and  finding out the rest of the story. It is, like many trailers aimed at a young demographic saying.... come watch Zac Efron! Which I guess is nothing new, really, and you know Elvis made movies....

and I think the girls of that generation were not going to the movies to be taken on a journey of a really good story. But I am old and I can be "tantalized" at the movie, but how about a good story with some muscle to it, instead of it being a vehicle to just watch the firm and possibly tattooed muscles on the screen!