Review: Lottery Ticket

29 December, 2010 William Eguizabal 0 Comments 2 categories

Title: Lottery Ticket
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Erik White
Starring: Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes

What It Is: Kevin Carson (Bow Wow) lives in the projects with his grandmother. Kevin does what he can day to day to help his grandmother, including working at a local Foot Locker. This is great for Kevin because he loves sneakers. In fact, he has wanted his own shoe company since he was a kid. This, as you can see, is incredibly hard since his family is poor. That is the very least of Kevin’s daily problems. Lorenzo (Gbenga Akinnagbe), the crazy neighborhood bully, really hates Kevin. All Kevin has besides his grandmother are his best friends Benny (Brandon T. Jackson) and Stacie (Naturi Naughton). All seems status quo in Kevin’s life until one day his grandmother asks him to play her lottery numbers. While down at the local liquor store to play her numbers, Kevin decides to play the numbers he got out of a fortune cookie at Stacie’s work. Kevin’s numbers hit, and he just won 370 million dollars. Unfortunately for Kevin, this bliss will be short lived, as the lottery office is closed for the Fourth of July weekend. Out come the sharks, all with an eye on Kevin’s money, including Lorenzo, who wants Kevin’s ticket in exchange for his life.

What We Think: This is supposed to be a comedy, but in all honesty it is not funny. A lot of the jokes fall flat. The jokes that do work feel recycled from other movies. Let’s not even start the discussion on the lame and tired stereotypes with which most of the characters are presented. You have the over-the-top preacher (Mike Epps) who has a fever and the only prescription is more money in his tithe. I think I saw this character type somewhere before. Oh wait, Katt Williams did it in First Sunday, and was much funnier despite that film being a steaming pile. It is still a stereotype, and that is just one of many that plague this movie, which for me was doomed from the start. Bow Wow and Jackson try very hard to keep the terrible material appealing through their on-screen friendship, but it is not enough to hold it all together. Their dynamic is there, but you could get a much better friendship by watching another Ice Cube movie, Friday. He and Chris Tucker show the chemistry needed here to at least give this film a chance.

Our Score: F, Sadly this film does not have the gusto to get off the ground, let alone soar. It is plagued by a weak narrative and a terrible story. It is thrown into an odd area when we meet Sweet Tee (Keith David), a “ghetto godfather” of sorts. Overall, Lottery Ticket buys a ticket but cannot sustain the ride, and that, alas, is what makes this film such an epic misfire. Ice Cube seems to be a walking box office failure, and that is another strike against it. Point blank, this film is terrible. We’re sorry, but it is.