Review of Lottery Ticket

While there are some good things about "Lottery Ticket", like the likable protagonist, most of the movie is filled with ridiculous stereotypes and dumb, obvious jokes. Bow Wow plays Kevin Carson, a young lad who lives with his grandmother, works at a job that's not great and dreams of moving out of the projects to become a sneaker designer. When his grandmother wins the lottery, meaning she just got $370 million richer things are looking up. The problem is that it's a long weekend and the ticket can't be cashed until the offices reopen. Soon people hear the news and everyone's becoming his "new best friend" and the neighborhood bully (Gbenga Akinnagbe) begins plotting extra hard against him. I think the biggest problem with this movie is the premise. The idea that someone living in a rough neighborhood all of a sudden has a whole lot of money and must now figure out what to do because everyone around him Is acting differently now has some promise. My issue is that the film feels like it really has to bend over backwards to make its premise work. They win the lottery and they have to wait a few days to cash in it. Alright. But then the grandmother, who doesn't have any sense whatsoever goes about blabbing to people and then we have the fear that the ticket is going to get stolen, but Kevin and his grandmother don't go to a hotel or visiting some trusted friends or anything… it feels really contrived. I'm certain that a bright young man like him with prospects of being a businessman would be able to come up with a sensible solution to this immediate problem. I also didn't feel like the conflicts and problems that arise when the word is out that he has this ticket were particularly creative. It does have some good messages about teenagers practicing safe sex and about how to invest your money in places that will count instead of spending it frivolously on trivial things to impress your friends but there isn't enough of it to make the movie really memorable and the humor felt lazy. I do believe that there was some potential here for some big laughs, but it's completely squandered. It isn't offensive despite some of the stereotypes so at least that was a relief. "Lottery Ticket" has a few bright spots but overall it doesn't really stand out as something you should really seek out to watch unless it's playing on TV already. (On DVD, November 11, 2012)