 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Lucky Numbers
- Review Date: May 4, 2003
- R
- Genre: Comedy
- 2000
Common Sense Media says
Not a great movie, and definitely not for kids.
Parents say
Kids say
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this movie has very strong language, nudity, sexual references and situations, assault, murder, shooting, drinking, smoking, and drug use, in addition to the overall theme of larceny and fraud. Some characters are punished, but some are not.
What's the story?
John Travolta plays Russ Richards, a popular local figure with a permanent parking space and roped-off table at his favorite local bistro, Denny's. He has ambitiously but unwisely invested in a snowmobile franchise. Despite his professional expertise, he did not anticipate that Harrisburg's uncharacteristically balmy winter would leave him on the brink of bankruptcy. He consults his friend, Gig (Tim Roth), who owns a strip joint. Gig arranges a robbery of the snowmobile showroom, but that goes wrong. So he suggests to Russ that perhaps Russ's girlfriend Crystal (Lisa Kudrow), who goes on camera in a ball gown each week to select the winning lottery numbers, might just be persuaded to help make sure that the numbers she picks are the ones they pick.
Is it any good?
Director Nora Ephron, best known for writing and directing sparkly romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle, goes for a darker kind of comedy in LUCKY NUMBERS. She gets terrific performances from a first-rate cast, especially Bill Pullman as a lazy police officer. Russ and Crystal behave like people who know for sure that they were meant to be rich, and are getting increasingly annoyed that somehow the message never got across.
But Ephron is a long way from the Coen brothers. She has some sharp insights about the ambitions and strategies of her characters and there are some very funny moments, a sort of "Maltese Falcon" on acid, but ultimately it does not work.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about why the money is important to the characters and how they calculate their risks. Movies about crime are always in some sense movies about problem-solving, and it is worth pointing out the way that the characters respond to the initial challenge of figuring out a way to sabotage the lottery and to the subsequent problems that they did not anticipate. Families may also want to talk about why people do and do not obey the law and what the consequences are for themselves and society if they don't.
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| Studio: | Paramount Pictures |
| Director: | Nora Ephron |
| Cast: | Bill Pullman, John Travolta, Lisa Kudrow |
| Genre: | Comedy |
| Run time: | 105 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | October 27, 2000 |
| DVD release date: | March 20, 2001 |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | language, sexuality, some drug use and brief violence |
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