The Lucky One
We begin by seeing a squadron of soldiers break into some house in Iraq. After they clear it out, with some loses, we then see our main character, Logan (Zac Efron) sitting and chilling with his friends. He notices something on the ground and walks over to pick it up. It turns out to be a picture of a girl (Taylor Schilling) with the words "Keep safe" on the back. As Logan turns around to return to his friends, a missile explodes and kills all in the area, except Logan. So he tries to find out who's picture it is, but no one claims it. Then, one of his friends recommends that he thank the girl in the picture for saving his life, only for his friend to die a few seconds later in another explosion that Logan somehow survived. Then we see Logan return home to his mother and little brothers. He can't stop worrying about how he survived and so many people didn't. He goes on a search to find the girl, and when he does, he agrees to a job that they had open and so starts our little love story.
There really isn't much good about this movie. Blythe Danner was hilarious as Nana/Ellie at times and she was one of my favorite characters here. Logan's dog, Zeus, had to of been a show stealer.
There's a lot of problems here. First off, it's extremely rushed and it's so God dang obvious that it is. By the time Beth falls for Logan, there's been no character development or chemistry between the two. She's hated him all the way until she throws a gigantic fit, but then falls in love with him out of nowhere. A love story between Logan and Nana would of made more sense. They at least had some connection. Not lovey-dovey connection, but still more of a connection than Logan and Beth had. Would it of been creepy? Hell yeah it would. Would it of made sense? Yes it would of. There's also tons of useless and garbage scenes that go nowhere. Some could argue that they're there for character development, but when a scene comes up of Beth's kid getting bullied at school and the movie doesn't refer back to a bullying issue after that one scene, you have a useless scene right there and your argument is rendered useless. What about when Logan just got back home and he's having a hard time getting back used to living a normal life since he's been a marine for so long? That was interesting and the movie could of dealt with issues like that, but no. We get two scenes, both only a few seconds long, and before the tittle of the film comes up and is never discussed again. Again, useless scene and makes your argument useless. There were just so many other plot points the movie could of taken for at least 30 minutes, but it stuck with this garbage plot. Then there's the love triangle between Logan, Beth, and her jealous ex-husband Keith (Jay R. Ferguson). Why does every film seem to have a love triangle? It's so common. It's in The Hunger Games, Twilight, about 80-90% of all romance films, and now we have another one here. Here, Logan is in love with Beth and can't stand Keith, Beth is in love with Logan and can't stand Keith, and Keith is in love with Beth and can't stand Logan. OK, it's pretty 1-sided, but the movie does everything it can to make it work during the third act, but fails completely. Filmmakers, just because Twilight does it and Twilight gets a lot of money for it doesn't mean that you have to use it in every film. Don't be Twilight! Please! This part of the film is also where the characters become extremely annoying, except for Nana. By this point, if you've stayed to watch this much, then you just really want to leave because there's nothing left. Then they bring the show stealing dog, Zeus, back. That begs the question. Where was he? I think even the director was scared to keep him in because he would continue stealing the show. I'm not kidding. Zeus is there from the second Logan returns home to when he gets a job at Beth's canine care center. Then he vanishes. No character in the film seems to notice that he's gone. He just vanishes and everyone acts as if he was never there. It's not until the third act when they bring him back and every character acts as if he was there the entire time and we just didn't notice him. Zeus actually doesn't do anything in the movie, but he still is a better character than any of the other ones. Then there's the overall problem with the story. It's extremely predictable. By the time the tittle of the film came up, I had the entire movie plotted out and I was pretty much right. I kept getting the feeling of de ja vu from the film and it's because it's been done a million other times by a million other movies. There's nothing original about it. It's just overused garbage from other, better films. I could go on about the other problems in this movie, like the useless montages in the first act or the fact that it follows the Nicholas Sparks' formula to an absolute T and does nothing new with it, but I think you get the point here.
So is this film worth watching? No. It's a piece of crap film with a recycled plot, horrible characters, a garbage love triangle, useless scenes that go nowhere, and plot holes out the wazoo.
There really isn't much good about this movie. Blythe Danner was hilarious as Nana/Ellie at times and she was one of my favorite characters here. Logan's dog, Zeus, had to of been a show stealer.
There's a lot of problems here. First off, it's extremely rushed and it's so God dang obvious that it is. By the time Beth falls for Logan, there's been no character development or chemistry between the two. She's hated him all the way until she throws a gigantic fit, but then falls in love with him out of nowhere. A love story between Logan and Nana would of made more sense. They at least had some connection. Not lovey-dovey connection, but still more of a connection than Logan and Beth had. Would it of been creepy? Hell yeah it would. Would it of made sense? Yes it would of. There's also tons of useless and garbage scenes that go nowhere. Some could argue that they're there for character development, but when a scene comes up of Beth's kid getting bullied at school and the movie doesn't refer back to a bullying issue after that one scene, you have a useless scene right there and your argument is rendered useless. What about when Logan just got back home and he's having a hard time getting back used to living a normal life since he's been a marine for so long? That was interesting and the movie could of dealt with issues like that, but no. We get two scenes, both only a few seconds long, and before the tittle of the film comes up and is never discussed again. Again, useless scene and makes your argument useless. There were just so many other plot points the movie could of taken for at least 30 minutes, but it stuck with this garbage plot. Then there's the love triangle between Logan, Beth, and her jealous ex-husband Keith (Jay R. Ferguson). Why does every film seem to have a love triangle? It's so common. It's in The Hunger Games, Twilight, about 80-90% of all romance films, and now we have another one here. Here, Logan is in love with Beth and can't stand Keith, Beth is in love with Logan and can't stand Keith, and Keith is in love with Beth and can't stand Logan. OK, it's pretty 1-sided, but the movie does everything it can to make it work during the third act, but fails completely. Filmmakers, just because Twilight does it and Twilight gets a lot of money for it doesn't mean that you have to use it in every film. Don't be Twilight! Please! This part of the film is also where the characters become extremely annoying, except for Nana. By this point, if you've stayed to watch this much, then you just really want to leave because there's nothing left. Then they bring the show stealing dog, Zeus, back. That begs the question. Where was he? I think even the director was scared to keep him in because he would continue stealing the show. I'm not kidding. Zeus is there from the second Logan returns home to when he gets a job at Beth's canine care center. Then he vanishes. No character in the film seems to notice that he's gone. He just vanishes and everyone acts as if he was never there. It's not until the third act when they bring him back and every character acts as if he was there the entire time and we just didn't notice him. Zeus actually doesn't do anything in the movie, but he still is a better character than any of the other ones. Then there's the overall problem with the story. It's extremely predictable. By the time the tittle of the film came up, I had the entire movie plotted out and I was pretty much right. I kept getting the feeling of de ja vu from the film and it's because it's been done a million other times by a million other movies. There's nothing original about it. It's just overused garbage from other, better films. I could go on about the other problems in this movie, like the useless montages in the first act or the fact that it follows the Nicholas Sparks' formula to an absolute T and does nothing new with it, but I think you get the point here.
So is this film worth watching? No. It's a piece of crap film with a recycled plot, horrible characters, a garbage love triangle, useless scenes that go nowhere, and plot holes out the wazoo.