'The Lucky One' is Out of Luck.

Nicholas Sparks' novels' tear-jerking formula, his literary skills are of undeniably stunning fashion, for me works in degrees of fluctuation and variety. Sometimes, you feel, as the ending credits roll, it does work, and rest of the times, it does not. It's an ironic thing because in my own experience, having myself inexplicably drawn to his paperbacks (I'm an emotional dude, sometimes. I think he does make me excessively sentimental, with no certainty if it is the book, or how he just made it), his books are evidently feeling like a movie disguised as a reading material. They're as though a movie turned-to-page-turners, rather than a book adapted to a movie. One thing is certain though, Sparks is as if flipping coins, pushing his fortune to the limit, and in his latest, "The Lucky One" is out of luck.

Definitely not "The Notebook" or "Message in the Bottle" or "Nights in Rodanthe" kind of good, "The Lucky One" is about Logan Thibault (Zac Efron, "Hairspray"; "Charlie St. Cloud"), a US marine sergeant (I'm still not convinced that he's fit for this marine role) who is saved by a lost picture in the desert-scape battlefield. He steps in to reach for the photo and take grip on it, as the face of the girl reveals, there be an explosion behind him that could have killed him if it weren't for the photo. Since then, Logan vowed to himself that he's going to find the girl in the photo, to thank.

Finding the "mystery" girl wasn't much of hard work. With the power of internet, he'd found Beth (Taylor Schilling, beautiful actress), the girl in the picture. Soon enough, as Sparks' formula is adhered, we get to witness how the two become intimate to one another. However, if we're adhering to the convention of a Sparks paperback swoon-fest, we'd also figure that something bad is going to happen--tragic, even. And yes, I'd make sure there is. Which isn't worthy to spoil.

Among all of the adaptations, 'The Lucky One' seemed to be the weakest link, and yes, I include the Miley Cyrus blah-blah Sparks movie about endangered turtles and the disappointing Channing Tatum film about well, him, and Amanda Seyfried. It desperately tries to shadow its flaws by its beautiful casts (Taylor and Zac). Efron, undeniably well-built, but still not convincing me as a marine, is sometimes more beautiful than his on-screen love partner. Efron and Schilling weren't a problem, they played well in this swoon-fest about, I don't know, luck?

That's the problem, I can't seem to understand what the movie desires to send to the audience. I even once thought that TLO shadows logic by love. Flamboyant because camerawork and photography were stunning, while the plot struggles from gaping holes. Hicks, working behind the camera is a good director. He directed "Shine" which earned an Oscar. It is a puzzling thought how he'd end up with this pile of cliche. Schmaltz you sure to encounter in this swoon-fest. Excessive, that is.

What I predict is that this is a money-maker yet again for Warner Bros. Pics, having a face like Zac Efron's on front row will sure earn you TONS of money. Especially when his shirt is taken off and doing a little squeezing-his-butt-action is involved (my girl readers, you can faint, it's okay).