LOTTERY TICKET (WB, 2010) D: Erik White, w/ Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson. Rating: NN DVD package: none Rating: NN
Lottery Ticket’s premise is brilliant: a poor man wins big on the lottery, and his life turns to hell. It’s full of comic potential and opportunities for savage and tender-hearted observation of the human condition.
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Kevin (Bow Wow), the luckless winner, can’t cash his ticket until the lottery office opens after the long weekend. Meanwhile, everyone in the neighbourhood wants a piece of the action, especially local thug Lorenzo (Gbenga Akinnagbe).
This leads to some funny bits with the preacher (Mike Epps), the gossip (Charles Q. Murphy), the mercenary hottie (Teairra Mari) and a quartet of layabouts who form themselves into Kevin’s entourage, but the movie bogs down at the halfway mark with a needless complication involving the local crime lord and some mawkish explorations of friendship and giving back to the community.
Director Erik White conveys a good sense of the community and provides some lively foot chases. Bow Wow makes an appealing underdog, and the rest of the cast pumps out plenty of energy.
The DVD has no extras. They’re all on the Blu-ray.
EXTRAS Widescreen. English audio. English, French, Spanish subtitles.
