Lisa Kudrow in Lucky Numbers (2000)
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The Robbins Recipe: Groundhog Day without the humor and intelligence. Also without the groundhogs. (The Groundhog Day parallel: a comedy in which John Travolta plays a TV weather forecaster in Pennsylvania.)
Here's a discussion question - what star had the worst pair of theatrical releases in 2000. True, Kim Basinger had I Dreamed of Africa and Bless the Child, but Travolta was right there, matching her step by step, with Battlefield Earth and Lucky Numbers.
The critic James Berardinelli began his review of this film by saying, "I am at a loss to explain John Travolta's continued popularity (or even why he has a career ... )". Whoa, you just have to stop pulling your punches, there, James. Say what's on your mind. Of course, he was pretty much spot-on, wasn't he? It's just that the rest of us have been pretending to talk to the Wizard, and Berardinelli spotted the little man behind the curtains.
Pair Travolta's sudden lack of charisma with screen writer Adam Resnick (Cabin Boy), and then imagine a studio executive approving $65 million dollars to make this movie. Frightening. Does that exec still have a job? Does it involve plus-selling Hot Apple Pies? It will take a lot of super-size upgrades to make up for the $50 million or so that they must have dropped on this baby.
I often complain that films don't have enough plot. Fortunately, this film has enough plot for every film ever made. Travolta and Lisa Kudrow work for a TV station, Travolta is in financial trouble, and they conspire to fix the lottery drawing (she's the lottery girl, he's the weather dude).
Everyone else in the world finds out about it, and they all want a piece of the action. And we see every single person double-cross every other person at one time or another. In fact, every single person in Asia wants 50% or more, so the split works out about like Bialystock and Bloom's shares in Springtime for Hitler
By the way, The Producers is now being remade as a Broadway play. Brooks is involved. Nathan Lane will take the Zero Mostel role, Matthew Broderick will take the Gene Wilder part. That, I want to see.
But I didn't want to see this unfunny movie.
The one thing that was fun was establishing the local weather reporter (Travolta) as a bit of a small-time superstar in the small market of Harrisburg, Pa. Travolta has a reserved parking place and his own private booth - at Denny's.
He's even better known at Denny's than my dad, baseball legend Danny "Suits" Sparrow, who eats at Denny's every day with 366 false ID's, so he can always get his free meal. Well, technically, one of his ID's is real, the other 365 are false.
But even this funny concept was mishandled by the film's ongoing unfunny condescension to the local residents. Oh, yeah, like the people in L.A. are so much more competent. Back in the Vietnam days, Mohammed Ali once said that the Vietcong weren't so bad because none of them ever called him a nigger.
You might say that the people of Harrisburg aren't so bad, because none of them were involved in creating this movie or, to my knowledge, any other one like it.
Given certain similarities to Groundhog Day, I wonder if Bill Murray could have saved this film if he had been cast in the Travolta part. It would have been worth a try. At least he knows what is or isn't funny.
Nudity Report: None but… Lisa Kudrow has a nice, near-escape. She has a great figure. Too bad we don't get to see more of it.
Critics Vote: One and a half stars. Roger Ebert 2/4, Berardinelli 2/4, Apollo 38, Leonard Maltin 1.5/4.
IMDB Summary: 5.5 out of 10
Box Office: A phenomenal flop. Grossed only $10 million dollars on a $65 million production budget. Was distributed to 2500 screens.
DVD Info: Widescreen anamorphic 1.85:1, full-length commentary by director Nora Ephron, some cast interviews.
Written by: Scoopy …Scoopy.net