The Lucky One - C

Rated PG-13, 101 minutes

Zac Efron has legions of fans, and I'm sure they'll love every minute of his charming but formulaic chick flick "The Lucky One," based on the Nicolas Sparks novel of the same name. Due to the popularity of Sparks' "The Notebook," he has become to romance films what Stephen King has become to horror films. "The Lucky One" is pretty standard issue romance fare, not terrible but so reliant on the Spark formula that you can easily count the dots quicker than you can say tear-jerker. A marine named Logan (Efron) finds a photograph of a young woman after a rough tour of duty in Iraq. The photograph saves his life, though he is unsure who the woman is or the owner of the photograph. He eventually tracks down the woman (Taylor Schilling from "Atlas Shrugged - Part 1"), a single mother named Beth in North Carolina, living with her crusty grandmother (scene stealer Blythe Danner, having fun) and not so far from her douche ex-husband Keith (Dallas' own Jay R Ferguson). Romance, death and lots of tears ensue. Throw in some cute dogs, semi-steamy love scenes and precocious kids and you have one foolproof movie in "The Lucky One," designed to both manipulate and charm at the same time. Not to be redundant, but "The Lucky One" fortunate to have director Scott Hicks, who helmed the Oscar-winning film "Shine" and manages a low-key, easy-on-the-eyes performance from Efron, who'll no doubt satisfy his fan base. He doesn't do much here, but then Efron probably (and in the vein of Channing Tatum and Taylor Lautner) doesn't really need to do much but stand there. You'll connect the dots easily as the film goes on, and it becomes near impossible to hate "The Lucky One" or Efron, regardless of your feelings about him (he's better than both Tatum and Lautner, but that isn't saying much).  With the summer guy movie season steadfastly approaching and "The Avengers" upon us very soon, I'll give this one to the ladies. Have at it and enjoy the predictable "The Lucky One" for what it is: eye candy romantic fluff and little else.