BEFORE: It's time to see if there's another side to John Travolta's roles - perhaps a darker side, a criminal side.
THE PLOT: A television weatherman scams a local lottery.
AFTER: Essentially this is a "heist" film, which is great because it kicks off a number of heist/crime films, which will lead me into my "cops + robbers" films, a theme which will carry me through to about mid-August. (There is a rough plan in place through early November, but it is slightly flexible...)
Travolta is still the "Man with the Plan" here - at least one of them, his character teams with his sort-of-girlfriend/co-worker, who is the local lotto numbers girl, and a shady strip-club owner. Weatherman Russ Richards, local celebrity and owner of a failing snowmobile store, is down on his luck, deep in debt, and can't even fake a robbery of his own store correctly to collect the insurance.
So the plan unfortunately keeps changing, after a series of mishaps, accidents, blackmail attempts, and double-crosses. Then more people find out about the plan, and things spiral out of control. You see, employees of the TV station would be ineligible to collect the PA state lottery, so their whole plan hinges on finding someone trustworthy to collect the winnings for them, and only take a small share for themselves.
This was directed by Nora Ephron, who also directed "Michael", and in a similar fashion, there's not much of a point to the proceedings. Sure, a lot of stuff happens, some good, some bad, but there's no clear message - rigging the state lottery is a bad idea? People will screw each other when a lot of money is involved? It's more like a series of random occurrences got strung together.
For better movies that detail how crazy people can get over large sums of money, check out "Brewster's Millions", or "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" - or even "How to Beat the High Cost of Living" - all better films. I may have to ban Nora Ephron films from the project, based on my reaction to the last 2 films - and I was so looking forward to "Julie & Julia"...
This film just doesn't go far enough in any direction - not funny enough to be a comedy, not dramatic enough to be meaningful. Not exactly action-packed either - jeez, make me laugh or make me think, entertain me or thrill me, but please, please, don't waste my time. I've still got miles to go before I sleep...
Also starring Lisa Kudrow, Tim Roth (last seen in "The Incredible Hulk"), Ed O'Neill, Michael Rapaport (last seen in "Men of Honor", I think), Daryl Mitchell (last seen in "Black Knight"), Bill Pullman (last seen in "Casper"), Michael Moore (in a rare acting performance), Richard Schiff (seen last night in "Michael), with cameos from Ken Jenkins (from "Scrubs", not the Jeopardy! winner), Sam McMurray as a police chief and Colin Mochrie as a host in a Denny's.
RATING: 4 out of 10 baseball bats
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