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review by Luca Brasi
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Lucky Numbers
Quickly, let's examine John Travolta's career lowlights.
Chalk up another one. Lucky Numbers is Nora Ephron's foray into black comedy, complete with forced jokes and uninteresting deaths played for comic value. It's supposed to be hilarious, but it's a lot more funny "strange" than funny "ha ha". Johnny T plays a Pennsylvania weatherman in financial trouble that schemes with the lotto girl (Lisa Kudrow, in a challenging tour-de-force, playing... a ditzy blond) to rig the lotto in his favour. No sooner than the idea arises but a lot of less-than-desirable mugs show up to wet their beaks a little on the proposed plan's payoff. Everyone in this town is either a moron or a greed-driven moron; it's hard to really root for any character. John Travolta does his best with what the material presents, and it's a shame to see bad films happen to good people. The sad fact is though that it's not very funny. Apart from a few well-placed cameos and quick jokes to keep the story going there's not much to care about, least of all the plotting characters. If you want to see a great Travolta black comedy, see Get Shorty and count yourself lucky you didn't see Lucky Numbers. |