I wasn’t expecting much when I went into the screening of Lottery Ticket and I definitely did not expect to see what I saw. Lottery Ticket is not a family film…it’s a lot more vulgar, sexy, and serious than it seems. It’s a decent movie that’s entertaining at times but doesn’t add much to the cinematic world except more fire on the stereotypes. The ensemble cast is comprised of your usual suspects in an “urban” movie but still great including Loretta Devine, Keith David, Terry Crews, and comedians Mike Epps, Charley Murphy, and Bill Bellamy.
Lottery Ticket is about Kevin Carson (Bow Wow), a kid from the Atlanta projects who wins $370 million. When most lottery movies are about what people do with all the money they win and the problems that arise from it, Lottery Ticket takes a different approach and is about surviving a three-day weekend in the projects with the winning ticket. Kevin has to get through nosey neighbors, an opportunistic hottie, money hungry church pastor, and a thug who just got out of prison. At first, Kevin didn’t want to buy a ticket for the lottery and was only going to buy his grandma’s numbers that came from a dream of Jesus and the Holy Bible. But then, after eating lunch with his long-time friend and obvious future girlfriend, Stacie (Naturi Naughton), he got some numbers from a fortune cookie and played them.
Guess what, he won. I know…surprise. Kevin wastes no time and travels downtown to get his money with his best friend, Benny (Brandon T. Jackson), who to me was like a young Mike Epps which was weird because Mike Epps is also in this movie. Anyway, this is where the movie really starts…the lottery office is closed because of the July 4th weekend and Kevin must survive 3 days in the ghetto to be able to claim his millions. Word quickly gets out that he’s a multi-millionaire and like Jay-Z’s song says…mo money, mo problems.
Not Ice T...Sweet Tee.
All the normal things that you’ve seen in other movies like this start happening. First, the hottest girl in the hood changes her mind and now wants to be with Kevin. Then, he takes a loan from a shady character (Keith David) and is protected by a strongman (Terry Crews) who now has to babysit Bebe’s Kids. He has words with his two best friends and has to patch that up later in the film and also talks to a mysterious character who gives the best advice. Finally, everything builds up to the climax with the biggest obstacle and problem for Kevin, the pre-mature crack baby felon named Lorenzo. There are not many surprises in this one except that it has the most surprising scene I’ve seen thus far this year that literally made me jump out of my seat.
I've got the golden ticket, I've got the golden ticket!
Let’s talk about the profanity. There’s no way this should be a PG-13 movie in my opinion. I counted at least 5 “N”-Bombs and 2 “F”-Words among other curse words. Parents Beware: this is not for the young kids. I understand the movie was based in the projects and it wanted to be “real” but it’s just perpetuating the stereotypes and corrupting another generation of youth. There’s no doubt that this is being targeted to kids because the the main character has just graduated high school…not even college. The seductive scenes can hold water to some R-Rated bedroom shots and they didn’t shy away to what was going on.
The moral of the story came from both Ice Cube and the bedroom sex scenes. It’s funny because it almost seemed like a public service announcement for aids. “Protect yourself at all times.” This slogan was used both for fighting the neighborhood thug as well as wearing a condom. The other message was the typical one you get when a character goes from hardships to millions: do what you’ve always dreamed of…and buy a helicopter. I would actually recommend the older crowd to watch this film because it does have a few good laughs but I wouldn’t let anyone still in school watch this.
Tags: Bill Bellamy, Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackso, Charley Murphy, Keith David, Loretta Devine, Lottery Ticket, Mike Epps, Naturi Naughton, Terry Crews
Matthew Fong created advancescreenings.com and is the lead contributor. He watches every type of movie and will try almost anything twice. You can follow him on twitter here: @matthewfong
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