DVD Pick: The Lucky Ones

Haven't seen it? Consider yourself amongst 'The Lucky Ones'!

BY EMIL TIEDEMANN

In Neil Burger's third career feature, Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Michael Pena (Crash), and Rachel McAdams (The Notebook) play injured soldiers who temporarily return home from Iraq, only to realize life wasn't quite the same as when they left it.

Robbins is Cheaver, a veteran soldier who discovers that his wife (Molly Hagan) wants a divorce from the man she's become accustomed to living without for the last two years, while his son (Mark L. Young) is in dire need of twenty grand to pay for a Stanford education. Pena is T.K., a sergeant who suffers a shrapnel injury in his "private area" and is unable to function properly, so to speak, while Adams plays a flakey militant named Colee, desperate to get her late boyfriend's $20,000 guitar home to his unexpecting family.

The dense misfits keep each other company on a tiresome road trip, first to St. Louis, and then to Vegas, where the informal strangers fleetingly diverge, only to randomly collide once again. Too many "as if" moments left me pouncing for the fast foward button, as this predictable and tedious film offered up nothing but been-there/done-that cinema. As the butchered script (by Burger and Dirk Wittenborn) bled onto screen, even the daffy charm of the stunning McAdams couldn't save this bargain bin flop.

Aside from a few LOL scenes (like when Colee suggests to T.K. that he substitute a life-like dildo for his unfunctional...you know) The Lucky Ones should have been--and almost was--a direct-to-video venture that did nothing for three acclaimed thespians who have each had there shining moments on the silver screen. But even the best of 'em are allowed a temporary lack of judgement...or maybe they just needed a paycheque?!

1/5 stars