Lucky Numbers Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
When they put their heads together... it's a no brainer.
Winter, 1988: Harrisburg PA's celebrity weatherman, Russ Richards, is broke: he's borrowed heavily to open a snowmobile dealership, and it's still unseasonably warm. Gig, his seedy pal, advises him to run an insurance scam; when it goes awry, Russ is out another $10,000 and in trouble with Dale, a bat-wielding thug. Gig convinces Russ to rig the state lottery with the help of Crystal, a gold-digging ditz with a heart of tin. They have to find a beard to buy the ticket, and then they have to cash it. Soon, murder and various double-crosses add to Russ's nightmare. A lazy cop zeroes in. Jail is closer than riches. Will Russ have to choose between his money and his life?
| John Travolta | Russ Richards |
| Lisa Kudrow | Crystal |
| Tim Roth | Gig |
| Ed O'Neill | Dick Simmons |
| Michael Rapaport | Dale |
| Daryl Mitchell | Det. Chambers |
| Bill Pullman | Det. Pat Lakewood |
| Richard Schiff | Jerry Green |
| Michael Moore | Walter |
| Sam McMurray | Chief Troutman |
| Michael Weston | Larry |
| Maria Bamford | Wendy the Waitress |
| Caroline Aaron | Nurse Sharpling |
| John F. O'Donohue | Bobby |
| Colin Mochrie | Jack |
| Nora Ephron |
4.90 out of 10 (4404 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Silly fun
posted on 09 Jun 2009This is a goofy caper movie with a tidy but interesting plot and terrific actors. Kudrow plays a ditzy sociopath, Travolta a hapless TV weatherman and failing businessman who is nonetheless a celebrity of sorts in town. Ed O'Neill and Tim Roth are great at what they do in this movie. It's funny, light but not flyaway, satirical, and fun. Many laughs.
Okay Comedy From The Mind Of Adam Resnick!
posted on 05 Jun 2009Lucky 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!
Go Al Bundy!!! a.k.a Ed O'Neill
posted on 28 May 2009well first of i'll say that i'm a big Ed fan, I wait for movies with him in it and watch reruns of married with children all the time. This time they actually gave him a part where people will actually notice him. He did great as the scheming station boss, he should get more parts, maybe even his own movie someday where he's the star. oh the movie itself huh, it was pretty good, mainly cause of Ed, john was his usual cool guy and Lisa was the usual bend me over girl like she always plays.Go Al that's my overall opinion
Lisa Kudrow is HILARIOUS!!!
posted on 04 Apr 2009She really lights up this movie. I think there are some really funny parts in this movie. It was a little slow at times, but still very good. Lisa had me laughing with her fake crash and her fake bumping her head on the wall. Travolta's character kinda scared me. For most of the movie I thought he was gonna blab the whole thing out. He seemed like a total nervous reck! Or maybe it's supposed to be that way. Who knows? I give this great comedy a 7/10
Another Nora Ephron gem
posted on 17 Mar 2009We've travelled many miles to view Bill Pullman movies and fortunately this one came to our local theatre. Unfortunately, the theatre was not packed, as it should have been, and my loud guffaws bounced from wall to wall. Nora Ephron should have cast Sandra Bullock in the Lottery girl's role....minus the filthy mouth. Too much gratuitous foul language from Lisa Kudrow who also gave a 'forced' performance. Travolta was disarming as the 'oh so cool' weatherman, he carried his role well. Who stole the movie?? Bill Pullman with his comedic skills did!!!! His Officer Lakewood was outstandingly outstanding. His body language and facial expressions communicate admirably to an audience. Hollywood should acknowledge this marvelous actor a bit more.I love Ephron's signatures, Christmas time, snow globes, pleasant music. How about another Ephron, Pullman, Bullock movie?
A definition of good comedy
posted on 01 Feb 2009I've just seen it again and I only reconfirmed that this gem deserves a place at the top of your lists. This is class. A light, entertaining, very well shot film. And what a cast! This is the second best cast I've ever seen in any movie after Glengarry Glen Ross! I mean Ed O'Neill! Tim Roth! Michael Moore! How can you fail a comedy starring these guys? And on top of that John Travolta, Bill Pullman and Lisa Kudrow deliver hilarious performances and prove how great actors they are! Scenario is witty but it's mainly an actors' movie. Moreover, it's obvious they had great fun making this. If I had to choose the best part it would be the grimaces of Bill Pullman. Respect to the man for making me fall out of the couch laughing! Unbelievable that such a fine movie has an overall rating of 5, while complete flops get a 7 or an 8. Makes me wonder of the standards of voters here. What did you want guys? More gratuitous sex and gore? More tasteless jokes? Well you'd better reconsider your priorities because this IS a good movie.
John Trivolta
posted on 18 Jan 2009John's role in this movie was the worst I've ever seen. He's usually the man, like if you've seen The General's Daughter. But this time, my girlfriend and I both agreed (which rarely happens) that this movie was horrible. I gave it a 2 because the story itself was ok.
Fair weather friends conspire to win big.
posted on 06 Jan 2009Acclaimed director Nora Ephron misses a winner by a big margin. High priced talent and a screwy plot equals a lame comedy. A very popular TV weatherman(John Travolta)is fighting foreclosure on his home, because he is going broke with a business venture. With advice from a strip club owner(Tim Roth)and the eager assistance of(Lisa Kudrow)the state lotto number caller on TV, a plan is contrived to rig the winning numbers. Situational comedy, but more or less a pretty stupid story. Maybe more of a drama and a whole lot less comedy could have saved this project. But this lotto flick is a losing crap shoot.Overweight Travolta is close to over the top as the egotistical weatherman. I don't recall seeing Kudrow in this light...sexy. No complaint here. Also in the cast are Ed O'Neil, Michael Moore and Bill Pullman. No great shakes, but the Travolta name is wagered to give credibility to this one.
Half-baked get-rich quick comedy
posted on 07 Dec 2008LUCKY NUMBERS (2000) * John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow, Tim Roth, Ed O' Neill, Michael Rapaport, Daryl Mitchell, Bill Pullman, Michael Moore, Richard Schiff, Michael Weston. (Dir: Nora Ephron)Weatherman never seem to get any proper respect and I'm sure you'll agree that whenever you click onto the local daily newscast with the award-winning team that when they finally get around to the announcement of their weatherman it is often with a false laugh and a couldn't-care-less disdain tone in their voices. Like Steve Martin in `L.A. Story' and Bill Murray in `Groundhog Day', John Travolta plays a hapless forecaster with a yen to something better.The something for Russ Richards (Travolta), Harrisburg, PA's local celebrity weatherman, it is a desire to become a game show host by any means necessary (echoes of `To Die For') which leads him to shirk his big-fish-in-a-small pond status and his going nowhere snowmobile sales dealership that is floundering ironically due to unseasonably warm weather for the winter. Russ, up to his neck in debt with a 30 day foreclosure on his house and his taste for a sporty Jag to tool around in to his private booth at the local Denny's (featuring the Russ Richards Omelette), conspires with his mistress Crystal (Kudrow, finally breaking away from her ditsy Emmy winning role as Phoebe on the sitcom blockbuster `Friends'), the lottery girl at the tv station, and his good buddy Gig (Roth) the proprietor of a strip club, to rig the state lottery with a surefire scheme to win the $6.4 M stake at hand. What follows is a domino effect of comedic errors that don't exactly provide guffaws or for me, even a smile. The fact that the trio pull it off is a miracle in itself but when their not so ingenious plan backfires the daisy-chain of events builds up with no big payoff. Characters are sloppily thrown in - Crystal's asthmatic, masturbating (thankfully off-screen) cousin Walter (rabble-rousing filmmaker Moore who provides some limited humor) is introduced as the dupe to cash in the winning claim ticket; Mitchell and Pullman as respectively an overzealous by-the-book rookie and slacker police team investigating the crime(s) at hand (Pullman seems to be doing a variation of his `stupidest man alive' character from `Ruthless People'); local bookie (Schiff, completely wasted in a pointed cameo); Rapaport cornering the cottage industry has set himself up for on another variation of mindless streetwise thugs as Dale The Thug (I'm not making that up either!) - while the threadebare plot by veteran comedy scribe Adam Resnick (including `The Larry Sanders Show' and Chris Elliott's cult sitcom classic `Get A Life') is staggeringly ill-conceived (based loosely on the real-life 1980 Pennsylvania Lottery fix) from the get go. Travolta, who has been in a string of flops for some time now since his Phoenix from the ashes revival in 1994's `Pulp Fiction', does what he can but his Russ is a one-dimensional character with shades of grey alluded to and all but force fed by the film's 180 degree turn at the end. After all he did get his big break in comedy in the classic Seventies' sitcom `Welcome Back, Kotter' as the vacuous leader of the sweathogs, iconic Vinnie Barbarino which proved he could make people laugh effortlessly. Here it's like watching him dance under water; gracelessly. Kudrow, who is an underrated comic actress (witness the indie hit `The Opposite Sex' for her bilious turn as a sexually frustrated schoolteacher surviving by her wits) and can act (ditto `Friends'), and even though she has shedded her alter ego of airheaded genius, her conniving Crystal is very unlikable and pretty ugly (which I suppose is the point). Filmmaker Ephron has had an equally unequal track record from her excellent screenplay of `When Harry Met Sally.' to her bomb directorial debut `Mixed Nuts' and the disastrous `Hanging Up' (co-starring Kudrow) this year as well, that maybe she should focus on one instead of both careers. The film overall feels half-baked and a hybrid of a crime drama and a black comedy ( I guess) of `A Simple Plan' and the aforementioned `Ruthless People' which only appears to be unlucky in the end run.
Better than I expected
posted on 22 Oct 2008This was a story about a cheezy weatherman and the lottery ball girl scheming to get rich and the hilarious aftermath. There were some very funny bits, my friend and I laughed out loud. Much better than I expected. Not a four star but I have no problem giving it three stars compared to the other garbage thats out.
Story lack of quality
posted on 10 Jul 2008The movie supposed to be good because all the things that come and go are well done and taking care of. Things such as music, acts and the expression of the casts.The fact is about the lottery ball which has been tampered, it should be shown clearly to the audience how it was done or by logic can it be done this way? or the other way.I like Mr Travolta's character, he is so funny and i do like him to play multi characters in all his movie.Good one to enjoy.
Lucky Numbers, Unlucky Results
posted on 09 Apr 2008Yet again I could not believe my eyes, when I read the reviews for one of the BEST movies of 2000. Lucky Numbers is led by an amazing cast and an extraordinary written script. John Travolta leads the rest on an amazing performance playing Russ Richards a Weather man and a game show host-wannabe. Lisa Kudrow plays the best character in the whole film, playing Crystal, the dumb sexy girl who cares only of herself. John Travolta's first breakthrough performance in Grease shows us he can play more than just the cool-slick dude whom everyone loves. In Lucky Numbers he is the TV personality whom every woman desires and every man envies, but turns out to be a normal dude after all. Kudrow's performance will be well-remembered (even though of the movie's horrible box-office) as one of her best performances ever. Lucky numbers says the story about the famous weatherman (Travolta) who needs to pay a whole bunch of money in deads. Talking to a friend of his (Tim Roth, Planet of the Apes), an idea comes up to rig the state lottery. Crystal (Kudrow) is the lottery girl and helps them do so. Will they get the money succesfully? You will have to go watch it. A+++, Great movie of 2000 BOTTOM LINE: Lucky Numbers, Lucky Plot and excellent overcome.
Effective performances, worth seeing just to watch Travolta and Kudrow in a great comic team. *** (out of four)
posted on 19 Feb 2008LUCKY NUMBERS / (2000) *** (out of four)By Blake French: In order for a black comedy to work, characters and situations need to be of a serious nature, and a story needs to incorporate a sick sense of humor within those variables. "Lucky Numbers" is not very funny. It could have been, but really is not. There are four or five funny sequences contained within the film's running time of almost two hours, and that is not enough to recommend on a comic level. But "Lucky Numbers" does everything else right, and director Nora Ephron captures an amusing sense of humor in her somewhat contentious production. That leads to a hard decision here-not enough laughs but an entertaining style and effective performances. I marginally recommend the movie as long as you do not expect to keel over in laugher while holding your sides in pain. The year is 1988. The film stars John Travolta as Russ Richards, a celebrity of a weather reporter in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. As the movie opens, we witness his egotistical attitude fed by hungry fans who surround him at his permanently reserved table at a local diner. He dreams of becoming a big time game show host and has the charisma to get the job, but his agent will not return his calls because, as we later find out, he is dead. Russ also has invested in a snowmobile dealership, but the extraordinarily mild winter has resulted in a lack of sales. Thus he is facing foreclose on his luxury house. Faced with zero opportunities and limited time, Russ gets ideas of how to get money quick from a sleazy strip club owner named Gig (Tim Roth). His first idea, an insurance scam, is a failure, so they soon turn to bigger possibilities. What better way to make fast cash then winning the lottery? The base lotto girl, Crystal (Lisa Kudrow from TV's "Friends"), whom with Russ and his Station manager, Dick (Ed O'Neill), are both having sex, is easily convinced to help him rig the lottery which will land them both in a jackpot of over six-million bucks. The heist works and Crystal and Russ have the winning ticket, but more characters become involved. Walter (documentary filmmaker Michael Moore), Crystal's asthmatic cousin, gets second ideas about helping the team with their scheme and wants a larger share of the money; being "the middle man," is hard work, you know. A native bookie named Jerry (Richard Schiff) gets suspicious of Gig's behavior, and ends up at the bottom of a lake, courtesy of Gig's loyal hit man, "the Thug" (Michael Rapaport), who also becomes increasingly greedy. Lazy police Lt. Pat Lakewood (Bill Pullman, the president in "Independence Day"), and his partner (Daryl Mitchell) also develop their suspicions with the lottery schemers, but Russ and Crystal's biggest problem may be Dick, who discovers the illegal scam and blackmails them two for half of the total amount of money. It appears rigging the lottery was not such a keen idea after all? John Travolta and Lisa Kudrow do a good job of playing their characters straight and serious. There are some violent and morbid events that take place, and the actors effectively incorporate the necessary comic tone to make the material amusing instead of disturbing. They play characters who are active in a plot that, although uneven, flows smoothly and is well written. There are a few too many characters here, and the movie finds itself running out of elbow room near the end, but the story is still entertaining enough to hold out interest for the majority of the time. Most of the laughs evolve from the characters' reactions to events taking place way out of their control. In one of the movie's funniest scenes, Russ is standing live before the camera when his associates announce on the news that the body of Jerry has been found. His reaction is to die for. Often the dialogue is even funnier. Take a scene where Walter is asked what he plans to do with his share of the money. In one breath he explains his church needs some heating equipment. In the next breath he declares the remainder of the earnings will help him open his own adult book store. During another scene, that owes a little too much of its tone to the inevitable "Pulp Fiction," "The Thug" has a dispute that threatens Russ' life and reputation, but, as he walks away, sees a bottle of mouthwash Russ purchased. The following dialogue follows:The Thug: Mint Listerine? Russ: Yeah. The Thug: When did they come out with this? Russ: I dont know. The Thug: Is it good? Russ: Yeah, its good.The characters' moods make this one of the funniest scenes I have seen in a while-even though it may not read that way. "Lucky Numbers" is not a great comedy, nor it is a completely successful one. It does manage to possess an enjoyable tone, but often loses its focus and wonders off in so many directions, it's hard to keep up. Overall, the film is worth a watch just to see such a biting comic duo by Kudrow and Travolta-all the rest is extra credit.
Unbalanced comedy that manages to entertain, but just barely.
posted on 21 Dec 2007It 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.
Ok to zone by
posted on 09 Nov 2007"Lucky Numbers" has Travolta in the center as a schmuck weather man who, with the t.v. station's "lottery girl" (Kudrow), sets about to rip off the state lottery for a cool $6 mil. An okay but very mediocre watch, this flick runs on star power. As the film wears on there is barely enough happening to maintain interest and when the end does arrive it's likely to be greeted with a stretch and a yawn. A mildly amusing no-brainer at best.
I enjoyed it
posted on 16 Oct 2007Lucky Numbers was called a flop, but I thought it was a pretty good story. Russ Richards (John Travolta), a weatherman on a local TV station in Harrisburg, PA, he also sells snowmobiles, but both careers are in a rut thanks to an unusually warm winter. Crystal (Lisa Kudrow) who State Lottery's lotto girl, she pulls the numbered balls out of the rotating bin. With the help of a few of his less scrupulous friends among them strip club owner Gig (Tim Roth), Dale The Thug (Michael Rappaport), and Crystal's sleazy cousin Walter (Michael Moore) Russ figures out a way to rig the lotto drawing and have Crystal pull numbers that they own. Russ soon discovers that making the scheme work and keeping everyone hush hush about it is more trouble than it's worth. Lucky Number's may not be the most original plot, but still was a very entertaining movie, Ed O'Neill as the boss was perfect and my girl Lisa Kudrow was excellent as always.
What decent scripts did Hollywood pass over for this melange?
posted on 05 May 2007This script film is just plain bad and embarrassing for all concerned. The Director, Nora Ephron, notable for putting out a decent script or two (When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seatle et al), surely must have recognised this scrip for the dog it is. I had to wait for the 2nd 30 minutes or so before I could see a laugh coming and when they did they were mediocre at best. However, my optimism was challenged, because by the time the last 30 minutes of the film came to fruition, it looked as though the cast were just keen to see the end of it and so was I. The writer, Adam Resnick, would have been better off developing the plot into a 5 minute skit for "Saturday Night Live", and I am being generous at best here. The end credits should have been all listed as "Alan Smithee" for the production crew. It really had me wondering one thing though.... What decent scripts did Hollywood pass over for this melange to escape the net?If you enjoyed the film, good for you.
What would you do if you win in the lottery?
posted on 12 Feb 2007I was surprised to notice how many famous personalities are in this film! To start Lisa Kudrow and Jonh Travolta, but also Bill Pullman,Ed O'Neill,Daryl Mitchell and even Michael Moore! (this last one was really a surprise to me, I could not imagine Michael Moore as an actor!) The soundtrack is also great. (Queen rules!)The year is 1988.The weatherman, Russ Richards (Jonh Travolta)is broke,since he's borrowed heavily to open a snowmobile dealership. But he has a big problem: The temperature is not helping, and he didn't sell any snowmobile. One day his pal Gig,owner of a strip tease club, advises him to run an insurance scam. But it failed, and Russ only get more problems, specially with Dale, the guy contracted to destroy Russ's store. The funniest thing is that Russ is getting more and more problems,specially after he makes a deal with Crystal, the woman that works in the lottery and TV.
Well, they did the best they could.
posted on 10 Aug 2009I was impressed by Travolta's consistently cheesy performance, which was perfect for that character. Lisa Kudrow stole the show with her Terry Garr-like performance. I was shocked by the number of cameos.It wasn't great, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting.