jakebredeck The lottery ticket is full of appreciable characters from the very beginning, from Kevin's grandmother to Benny, and Ice Cube's resounding appearance as Mr. Washington. It creates a strong atmosphere throughout the story's community, and is very admirable on the surface. With comical close ups, low lighting in Mr. Washington's basement, and long shots of the neighborhood from building tops, the movie as a whole does a good job of provoking emotions from every spectrum. It also creates a strong contrast between the family oriented community, seen at the large cookout towards the end of the movie, and all the socializing throughout town, and the serious criminal activity found all throughout town. The issues with the movie can be found in substance. The plot is entirely too predictable, with most of it being forced by obvious ill advised decisions being made by the main characters. With little to no plot twists, and a standard happy ending with a payout of $370 million, the viewer is left feeling rather empty. There is merit to the movie as a whole, and mild entertainment value, but little substance making it only slightly above average.

MLDinTN This movie is about a recent high school graduate, Kevin, whom wins a 370 million dollar lottery. Problem is the lottery office is closed for the holiday weekend, so he can't collect till Tuesday. He lives in the projects and has a grandma that can't keep a secret and a lot of gossipy neighbors.What I didn't believe is that only one guy, Lorenzo, tried to steal the ticket. I'm thinking half the neighborhood would be trying to get that ticket. Also a local gangster gives Kevin 100,000 dollars as a "gift". He's expecting Kevin to give him some of the winnings. For that one day, Kevin lets the money go to his head from spending and getting girls that before wouldn't give him the time of day. Of course, he realizes the girl he should be with was his friend all along. And apologizes to his best friend for going off. Lorenzo gets the ticket and its up to Kevin to get it back. He gets some help from Ice Cube.FINAL VERDICT: Better than expected, not sure I would pay to see it but catch it on cable.

Steve Pulaski Lottery Ticket is much a film with two likable lead characters, but it has such a weak and predictable plot you wonder why you even care about the events in it. I admit that when I saw the trailer I was very interested in seeing it because it looked like F Gary Gray's fantastic urban Comedy called Friday and it's sequels. Hell, it even has Ice Cube that was in everyone of those film. It's a buddy film, an urban film, and a plot that's not the worst. I dig all three of those things.Bow Wow is a decent actor, but his music is less than impressive. After being less than impressed with his album New Jack City Part 2, I wasn't racing to see/hear anything Bow Wow for quite a while. Then this film comes along to grab me, shake me, and say "Hey! This is a film that is in the spirit of Friday! See it, Steve!" And I obeyed. Bow Wow does a fair job at acting, but I'd rather watch him than have him rap with music in the background. Lets just say, he's a tame Chris Tucker.The plot surfaces around High School graduate Kevin (Bow Wow) who works at a Foot Locker and desperately wants to own his own shoe design business. Living in an urban neighborhood, he doesn't have the cash to send himself to Design School and his Jesus freak of a grandmother wants him to grow up and "live in the real world".After a run in with the town bully and after disastrous results as, Kevin is sent to buy a lottery ticket for his grandmother where we get the best part of the movie - T-Pain. T-Pain's music is better than Bow Wow's, but not perfect. Only this time it was the opposite. I didn't like Bow Wow's music, but I still watched the film. I didn't like T-Pain's music in Freaknik: The Musical, but still saw his film. Where's the sign that "Entering Paradox"?You can guess the rest; he plays the numbers his grandma wants, then takes a fortune cookie message's lucky numbers and plays them. He winds up winning the jackpot of $370,000,000, and the only trouble he faces now is keeping possession of the ticket over the Fourth of July weekend without it slipping into the wrong hands. Kevin then gets a look at what money does to people, and talks to people that he may have never walked past if he didn't have a $370 million ticket to his name.Lottery Ticket has it's heart in the right place, but it lacks greatly in trying to unique. The plot is surely decent, but isn't utilized in a fresh, new way. Then again what movie is? It reminds me much of a film I reviewed earlier this year called The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard. You know the company isn't going to lose out on everything. Even if the chips are down, so how, some unrealistic miracle comes around to save everyone. Lottery Ticket doesn't hit the jackpot, but it deserves a "free ticket".Starring: Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson, Naturi Naughton, Loretta Devine, Terry Crews, Ice Cube, and Gbenga Akinnagbe. Directed by: Erik White.

capone666 Lottery TicketIn addition to millions of dollars, when someone wins the lottery, they also win greedy relatives, continual litigation and multiple lightening strikes.Fortunately, the lucky ticket-holder in this comedy only has to cope with a vindictive ex-con.When word gets out that Kevin (Bow Wow) won the $370 million jackpot, his neighbourhood comes a-knocking. Unable to collect his winnings for 3 days, Kevin must keep the winning ticket away from the perils of spontaneous prosperity, i.e. sexy sycophants, a loan shark (Keith David) and a local thug.Fortunately, Kevin has an impoverished ex-boxer (Ice Cube) in his corner.While it attempts to evoke nostalgia for old school neighbourhood-centric comedies, Lottery Ticket is a lousy torchbearer: the casting is second-rate, the characters are typecasts, and the jokes are tired. And besides, regardless of who claims the winning ticket, in any lottery the manufacturer of the giant novelty cheque is always the winner. (Red Light)