Magic Numbers

This movie desperately needed better screenplay and better ending to it.Fair black comedy though becouse of the great cast and the powers of Travolta and Kudrow.Unfairly cut down by many critics.It is worth a watch as long as you do not expect a classic which I'm sure most knowledgable movie goers will not.The director shoud have made it more underground and less mainstream given the style chosen to do this film.......

Nora Ephron's Lucky Numbers has it's moments, but in the long run it is a near miss. The plot has a successfull weatherman and snowmotor businessman played by John Travolta in a somewhat redeemable performance (after Battlefield Earth, even though he wasn't bad in that). But, he starts to get in debt, and his snowmotor business is loosing because of a warm winter. So, he and his girl (Lisa Kudrow is wickedly cruel yet sometimes funny) get the idea to rig the lottery, but things go wrong. The film is all over the map, with too many characters and a lot of plot going into something that doesn't need it, and I'm talking about a dark comedy here, so know where I'm coming from. 2 very funny scenes though almost make up the utter lulls in the film: a scene where Travolta has a blank expression on his face while trying to report the weather and hearing about a murder linked to him; and the 2 exceptional scenes with Michael Moore (of Roger & Me fame) as Kudrow's pathetic, asthmatic cousin. Now if only these scenes were put in a slightly better film. C+

John Travolta is embarrassing. He is NOT funny. Unfortunately the story is about his character Russ Richards. This Russ Richards annoys everyone in the movie and the audience. Travolta's last good movie was 1997's SHE'S SO LOVELY.

Lisa Kudrow does her best, but can't save the movie. Her character ranges between being stupid and being ruthless. Some of the better moments AND laughs come from her.

Bill Pullman steals the show as a cop who doesn't want to work. Unfortunately he only appears at the end of the movie when you are so bored that you are not longer interested in what is happening next.

Good cast (except Travolta), poor story, nothing special. 4 out of 10

Lucky Numbers is not a great film but a good one. I thought John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow and Tim Roth and Ed O'Neill gave fine performances. Lisa Kudrow is the only one of the "Friends" cast who doesn't make totally sucky movies. With the exception of Jennifer Aniston in Office Space and maybe David Schwimmer in Apt Pupil.

I really dug the Midwest American setting, the two bumbling cops, how Travolta's character Russ Richards wallows and loves his local celebrity status and his reserved parking spot at the local Denny's, and the great 80's soundtrack. And this has to be the first flick directed by Nora Ephron that I enjoyed.

Adam Resnick wrote the screenplay for Lucky Numbers and the more recent Death To Smoochy. Both these films are good but flawed dark comedies and deserve to be seen and enjoyed. So don't listen to what others may say and go see these two (flawed) Resnick gems. Ciao!

Working from a screenplay by Adam Resnick, director Nora Ephron diverts from her usual domain of romantic comedy to skirt the perimeter of Scorsese territory with `Lucky Numbers,' a black comedy of errors starring John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow. Travolta is T.V. weatherman Russ Richards, something of a local celebrity in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he also owns a snowmobile dealership. Kudrow is Crystal Latroy, who works for the same station as Richards, as the `Vanna White' of the state lottery show; she's the girl who pulls the ping-pong balls from the tube and calls out the winning numbers. In their world, everything is pretty much jake until the weather stays too good for too long; no snow means no snowmobile sales for Russ, and pretty quickly he's in it up to here, financially. With his back against the wall, the usually honest and upright Richards is coaxed into a plan that will put an end to his woes and worries. All he has to do is convince Crystal to help him rig the lottery, and they'll walk away with upward of six million dollars. And, as it usually goes with a plan for the perfect crime, it isn't long before Murphy's Law goes into effect, and things go south in a hurry. And life for Russ Richards, a guy with his own table at Denny's, just isn't what it used to be. But, like they say, when things look dark, it's probably only going to get darker... For Travolta, the character of Richards is somewhat different than any he's done before. To pull it off (which he does), he has to play down the charm and stifle his natural charisma, leaving Russ with just enough polish and ego to make him `local celebrity' believable. This is a good guy at heart, reasonably intelligent, but not exactly the brightest bulb in the overheads. And Travolta manages to put it all across admirably. He's not someone you'll easily relate to, but you've got to like this guy. He's kind of a, well, he's a goof-ball. Kudrow has a character in Crystal that is different for her as well; as the lotto girl, on the show she exhibits a somewhat dense persona; but Crystal is anything but. She's the sharp one of the bunch, externally charming when she needs to be, but tough as nails on the inside and ready to play hardball as soon as the opportunity presents itself. And Kudrow plays it all beautifully. Crystal is not someone you're readily going to embrace, but it's hard not to like her. Is it her fault there's more than a little larceny in her heart just waiting for the right circumstances to be unleashed? Ephron seems to enjoy taking these characters, who are just a shade darker than what she's used to, through their paces. It's a satirical walk on the wild side for her, and she manages to mine laughs in some of the darkest places along the way. But when you have characters with names like `Gig' (Tim Roth) and `Dale the Thug' (Michael Rapaport), you're going to get some chuckles no matter what, especially when one of them is wielding a baseball bat for all the wrong reasons. The supporting cast includes Ed O'Neill (Dick), Michael Moore (Walter), Michael Weston (Larry), and, in a small, but highly effective and hilarious role, Bill Pullman (Lakewood). This is a funny movie, though not uproariously so; things happen that you will laugh at in spite of yourself, while at other times there are moments that are genuinely side-splitting hilarious (one in particular, near the end, that involves an eighteen-wheeler). This may not be Ephron's crowning achievement cinematically, but nevertheless, `Lucky Numbers' is entertaining and good for some laughs. For Ephron, it's definitely the road less traveled; but in the end, it's a trip worth taking with her. I rate this one 7/10.