Battlefield
Earth was a notorious bomb that put a severe snag in John Travolta’s
career. What people tend to forget is
that his next movie, Lucky Numbers made even less at the box office. It only made $10 million dollars (half of
what Battlefield Earth made) against a $63 million budget. The difference between the two is that Lucky
Numbers is actually a lot of fun. Despite
not finding an audience, this black comedy has plenty of laughs and a dark
sense of humor, which helps, especially when the plot threatens to spin out of
control in the late going. The Christmas
setting also makes it a perfect watch around the holidays.
Smarting
from several bad investments, local Harrisburg weatherman Russ Richards
(Travolta) is desperate for cash. His
girlfriend Crystal (Lisa Kudrow) works with him at the television station,
drawing numbers for the local lottery. Along
with his sleazy buddy Gig (Tim Roth, Travolta’s Pulp Fiction co-star), Russ and
Crystal hatch a plan to rig the lottery in their favor.
That’s
just the tip of the iceberg. I wouldn’t
dream of revealing how they go about rigging the lottery. Heck, most of the fun comes from seeing how their
well-oiled plan falls apart. The film
gets wilder and wilder as it goes along with crazy and crazier characters
getting in on the scheme. The supporting
cast are aces, and keep you watching even when Adam (Cabin Boy) Resnick’s script
gets needlessly convoluted in the third act.
Ed O’Neill is especially good as Travolta’s boss (who’s also banging
Kudrow), and there’s some great bits by Bill Pullman as a dim-witted cop and
Michael Moore as the patsy hired to pick up the winnings.
Even
when the cavalcade of offbeat characters is circling around the plot, Travolta remains
a constant center. It wouldn’t work if
he wasn’t likeable and we didn’t want to see him succeed, even if he does do
some extremely shady shit to get his hands on the loot. It’s a shame he doesn’t get much of an
opportunity to play comedic roles anymore because you forget how effortlessly
he can do it.
AKA: Magic Numbers.
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