Movie Review: Lottery Ticket

by KYW's Bill Wine --

Sudden wealth can be bad for your health. Easy money doesn't make things sunny. Gettin' rich can be a... burden.

That's the irony that drives the urban windfall comedy Lottery Ticket, wherein a wish-fulfillment dream quickly turns into an out-of-control nightmare.

Bow Wow plays the central character, Kevin Carson, a teenager living in the projects who finds out that he holds a winning Mondo Millions Lottery ticket worth $370 million.

The problem is that he discovers his good fortune at the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend and the lottery claims office is closed until after the long weekend.

So he cannot collect his winnings yet.  And as word spreads throughout the neighborhood about his newfound wealth, everybody wants a piece of the action.

Everybody.

His grandmother, played by Loretta Devine.  And his glib best friend, played by Brandon P. Jackson, whose motives he's now suspicious of.

Also the neighborhood gossip, played by Charlie Murphy. The dapper loan shark, Sweet Tee, played by Keith David, along with his driver, played by Terry Crews.   A gold digger who digs Kevin's future gold, played by Teairra Mari. Even the disreputable Rev. Taylor, played by Mike Epps, who makes an unapologetic pitch for the moolah from the pulpit.

And -- most imposing of all -- the threatening parolee thug, Lorenzo Mack, played by Gbenga Akinnagbe, who absolutely demands that Kevin merely turn it over to him, or else.

So Kevin's got to hide and protect that ticket no matter what.

Only his girlfriend, played by Naturi Naughton, displays any skepticism about the effect that Kevin's who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire triumph may have on his core values.

Ice Cube, who also served as one of the executive producers, plays the key role of Thump Washington, a mysterious neighbor and retired ex-boxer who has not emerged from his basement in years and who takes a sudden interest in Kevin.

The debuting director, Erik White, coming from a background in video, co-wrote the story with Abdul Williams that formed the basis for the screenplay by Williams.

Realism has been ignored far beyond the level that it needs to be, even in the broadest of comedies, whereas product placement is front and center to an embarrassing degree.

White's central premise -- recalling, as it does, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World -- is actually a promising one, but the greed-heeding script features caricatures instead of characters and unsteadily mixes broad slapstick with threat-of-violence menace.

The film's comic highlight is a welcome outburst of legitimate hilarity provided by the greedy minister portrayed by Epps, who's more disciplined and restrained than usual and thus truly funny in this outing.

Characterization remains at the shallow end of the pool, and that includes the protagonist, which Bow Wow, even though he is appealingly low-key, can do little with because he's saddled with playing a situation but not much of a character.

The message in the film's finale about bonding and giving back to the community seems aggressively insincere and vaguely hypocritical, coming as it does after all the buck-chasing, wealth-glorifying hijinks. At any rate, it's too little too late.

So we'll win 2 stars out of 4. Lottery Ticket is a ragged and jagged jackpot comedy that doesn't quite pay off.