Lucky Numbers (2000)

Simply A Masterpiece

Fresh and Exciting

Fantastic!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Lucky Numbers (2000): Dir: Nora Ephron / Cast: John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Roth, Bill Pullman, Ed O'Neill: Anything but lucky for those unfortunate enough to see it. Title refers to its two stars but since the ongoing events result in bad luck it comes off as a misdirection. John Travolta plays an adored weatherman who is joined by lottery girl Lisa Kudrow in rigging the lottery. She is romantically involved with both Travolta and her boss. Director Nora Ephron previously directed Travolta in Michael but here she is surrounded by endless stupidity. The production looks as festive as an outdoor toilet. Travolta looks plain desperate as he attempts to erase one mistake by creating five new ones. Kudrow plays dimwit dumb without payoff. When her asthmatic cousin fails to come through on part of the scheme she throttle the tar out of him, unintentionally killing him. In any event both leads are at their worst, and considering that Travolta starred in the dreadful Battlefield Earth the same year, it would take more than the lottery to bypass that shame. Tim Roth is best casting as a strip club owner who assists the star duo. Bill Pullman plays a brainless cop who concludes on the one funny scene. Ed O'Neill plays a sleazy station manager who sleeps with Kudrow on the side. Theme of greed is evident but this is ultimately Travolta's unlucky number. Score: 3 / 10

With comedies, some things are funny and hit your funny bone just right and others don't for whatever reason. I particularly enjoy a tongue in cheek style dialog like the one in this movie. Travolta plays a self important weatherman on a cheesy news program and is so clueless, he becomes charming. I think this film is clever, campy, intelligent and sardonic and I loved it. I have seen it many times and it is still very entertaining. For the record it is crude and there are strippers, hit men, tacky sex scenes and some language but it is always making fun of itself so the crudeness is not really that offensive in my opinion. Lisa Kudrow and Travolta are truly funny together and the other actors add a lot to the film, they are so well cast. I looked up the writer of this film and wonder why he has not written more comedies- as he is really witty here.

Watching "Lucky Numbers" was one of the most confusing cinema experiences I have had in some time. The problem becomes clear not long into watching the movie - it can't decide what kind of movie it is. A comedy? A hard drama? It seems to be trying to be BOTH of those movies, with a number of yuk yuk moments, but also some seriously harsh moments (which include some violent deaths).Had the movie tried to be a 100% comedy OR a 100% drama, I think it would have worked a lot better than it does now. But there would still be some problems with the movie. The Leonard Maltin movie guide got it right when it said the movie had "unpleasant characters". I don't blame the actors for this (even newbie actor Michael Moore), but how they were pushed in their performances by the direction and the script. But you have to wonder what they saw in the script to make them sign up.

It was refreshing to see Travolta play a reluctant, unsophisticated crook for a change. Here he is a small TV station weatherman, adored by all the locals, and who also has a snowmobile dealership. The year is 1988 and the winter is unseasonably warm. No snowmobiles are being sold, and his home is about to be repossessed. He needs money but his boss is refusing this time. some SPOILERS FOLLOW - Small time numbers man (Tim Roth) suggests he stage a theft, and get the insurance money, "That money is yours, they are using your insurance premiums and earning interest on it." That fails miserably, he gets deeper in debt, this time to a burglar, and has to do something really desperate - rig the Pennsylvania lottery so he and his girlfriend (Kudrow) can split the $6.4Million, with the help of a masturbating and asthmatic cousin. Enough of the details, the scam works, sort of, but the cousin dies, others want their cut, all this time Travolta's character is scared and upset that he would actually do these things. In the end everyone else gets killed or otherwise in trouble, he gets the extremely dumb waitress at Denny's, his favorite breakfast spot, to cash in the ticket and they move to warmer climate of Florida. Sometimes you just have to have a bit of "Luck."This is the antithesis of all those Travolta movies (Face/Off, Broken Arrow, etc) where he plays the smart criminal who knows all the right moves, well almost all. Here he is not particularly bright, and is a very reluctant participant. I cannot say the movie is good, much of the dialog is haphazard, but it does entertain. With a smarter script, and in the hands of a different director, this premise could have been turned into a much better dark comedy on par with "Analyze That" or "The Whole Nine Yards." As it is, "Lucky Numbers" can entertain but its appropriate rating is around "5" or "6", about where the IMDb numbers are clustering now. The DVD is just OK, and the extras are not worth mentioning. Good light entertainment, if you are in the mood to be very forgiving of a bad script.