Eric Bana’s career jeopardized by an ironically-titled movie and by Eric Bana.

Actor Eric Bana really should be happy. He’s got rugged good looks, thick and lush movie star hair and a mysterious, elusive, tabloids-barely-know-him vibe going on. And although he’s not the most prolific actor, he’s already worked with movie industry heavyweights such as Spielberg, Ridley Scott and Wolfgang Petersen.

So what does it take to make the guy a star, anyway?

Unfortunately, it probably won’t be Lucky You, which is shaping up as an admirable but sappy bit of fluff. I completely agree with Gazz at FilmRot.com in pointing out that the fourth trailer for Lucky You takes us way, WAY too deeply into the plot details of the movie. The previous clips focused more on the movie’s poker angle than the romance, which in my opinion sells the movie a bit better. This time around we’re spending too much time with romance, Drew Barrymore, and pablum. They seem to have taken every on-the-nose, clichéd line that could possibly be in the movie and dumped it into this trailer: “All you need is a little luck”, “You think that the only person who matters is you!“, “Don’t chase what you can’t catch”, and more awfulness. The movie’s got a terrific pedigree – written by Eric Roth, cowritten and directed by Curtis Hanson, costarring Robert Duvall – but every plot moment looks telegraphed, conventional.

As if this weren’t enough make Bana gloomy, FilmRot.com also posts a snippet of an interview with the actor in which he gives us a glimpse into that dark sense of self-loathing that we know and/or hope that all handsomely paid, genetically blessed and fortunately employed actors must have:

Are you looking forward to the new Hulk movie?
Bana: As a viewer?
Well aren’t you going to be in it?
Bana: No, no – I’m joining that very exclusive club with George Clooney and Ben Affleck of having broken an unbreakable comic-book character with my interpretation of it. I won’t be back, no.

Wow. Nothing like taking the weight of a multi-million-dollar collaborative failure firmly on your own shoulders.

But take note, Hollywood bigshots. Consider casting Bana the next time you think you might have a blockbuster flop on your hands; his finely-tuned insecurity clearly positions him as the go-to blame guy when the whole thing spectacularly detonates.