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 ucky Numbers is a fictional comedy inspired by a real-life scam to win the Pennsylvania State Lottery. John Travolta is TV weatherman Russ Richards, who schemes with the station's lotto ball girl (Lisa Kudrow) to rig the lottery drawing and avert personal financial ruin. The numbers come up right, but everything else goes wrong as their plan starts to unravel and the game turns rough. Back in 1980, the Pennsylvania State Lottery was rocked by what will always be known as the "666 Fix", a scheme to fix the Daily Number drawing. The resulting scandals inspired endless speculation, editorials and now this fictional comedy. Directed by Nora Ephron, the film also stars Tim Roth, Ed O'Neill, Michael Rapaport, Bull Pullman and Michael Moore. Travolta and Ephron have not worked together since the hit comedy Michael. "I hoped to work with John again," said Ephron, "and when I read Adam Resnick's hilarious script, I realized this was the perfect opportunity." |
actors John Travolta Lisa Kudrow Michael Moore Ed O'Neill Bill Pullman Tim Roth Michael Rapaport director locations outtake
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| For his part, Travolta offers
that "the attraction was that I could have the part for myself and
my own comic sensibilities." He goes on to say about his character
Russ, that "he seems guileless and unaware that he's ever full of
himself, and this lack of awareness of how he's behaving or how he's
being perceived makes you tend to forgive him." In addition to being a celebrity weatherman, Russ is a part-time businessman. His slippery descent into crime begins during one of the warmest winters in memory. With no snow in sight, sales at Russ' snowmobile dealership are stalled and his business is about to go belly up. That's when he turns to Gig, an old buddy and strip club owner, played by Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction) for help. Gig has some helpful but highly illegal suggestions, one of which requires the collusion of Crystal Latroy, the dim, avaricious lotto ball girl. From the beginning, however, Russ' plan falls apart. He finds himself propelled into a variety of disastrous complications, chief among them being Dole Wagstaff (Michael Rapaport), who is an inept, dangerous thug brought into the scheme by Gig, who screws up everything he touches. Ed O'Neill plays Dick Simmons, Russ' greedy station manager, Michael Moore appears as Crystal's cousin, a less trustworthy co-conspirator than she had thought, and Bill Pullman is Police Lt. Pat Lakewood, a deadbeat cop reluctantly investigating the disappearance of Gig's bookie. Travolta's resume includes the box office success of The General's Daughter from a couple of years back and he's been honored twice with Academy Award nominations, most recently for his riveting portrayal of a philosophical hitman in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction. Kudrow's Crystal Latroy is distinctively different from the character she plays on the hit series Friends. Previous feature film roles include Analyze This with Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro and Hanging Up with Diane Keaton and Meg Ryan. She also starred in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion with Mira Sorvino and Mother with Albert Brooks. - Gerry Young |