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Release Date: November 11th, 2010 Movie Release Year: 2010

Lottery Ticket

Overview -

Kevin Carson is a young man living in the projects who has to survive a three-day weekend after his opportunistic neighbors find out he's holding a winning lottery ticket worth $370 million.

OVERALL:
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Rating Breakdown
STORY
VIDEO
AUDIO
SPECIAL FEATURES
Tech Specs & Release Details
Technical Specs:
Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy
Video Resolution/Codec:
1080p/VC-1
Length:
99
Aspect Ratio(s):
2.35:1
Audio Formats:
Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles/Captions:
English SDH, French, and Spanish
Special Features:
Additional scenes
Release Date:
November 11th, 2010

Storyline: Our Reviewer's Take

Ranking:

I've imagined winning the lottery many times. I assume the feeling is one of utter euphoria. Just picture the exhilarating sensation that would race through your body as you matched the numbers on screen with the digits printed on the ticket in your hands! Thrilling, right? Now, picture the exact opposite of that experience. Drudgery, pain, misery... that's how it feels to watch 'Lottery Ticket.'

Bow Wow (who has grown up enough to drop the Lil' from his name) plays Kevin Carson. Kevin lives with his grandma in a lower income neighborhood. He works at Footlocker, and dreams of one day owning his own footwear design company. His grandmother is obsessed with playing the lottery, and so is everyone else in town, because the jackpot has now topped out at a cool $370 million.

Kevin seems to be the only person in the neighborhood with his head on straight. After he buys the winning ticket and realizes the lottery redemption center isn't open over the 4th of July weekend, everyone in the neighborhood wants a piece of him. An eccentric religious leader wants Kevin to help build a new church. A local crime boss wants to give Kevin a loan until he's able to procure his new found wealth, but the loan comes with insane interest. Casual acquaintances suddenly want to be his closest friends. As for his enemies, they just want to take the ticket from him and get the money for themselves.

Much of the movie features Kevin and his friend (Brandon T. Jackson) being chased by money-grubbing individuals. Lorenzo is the resident badass, and, having previously tried to sneak out of Foot Locker with a dozen pairs of new shoes without paying, he's fixing to get revenge on Kevin. Not only does Lorenzo want to take Kevin's money, he wants to kill him too.

Ice Cube pops up as a recluse who lives in a basement apartment and has Kevin get him Cherry Coke and beef jerky at the local store. He used to be a sparring partner for all the boxing greats. Quick, I'll give you three guesses who comes to Kevin's rescue when help is needed most.

'Lottery Ticket' is contrived, clichéd, and falsely sentimental. It's annoyingly unfunny and predictable. The entire movie comes across as a trite, generic mess that we've seen many times before.

Video Review

Ranking:

'Lottery Ticket's VC-1 encoded 1080p transfer comes complete with a satisfying, balmy color palette. Lush greens, deep reds, and earthy browns dominate the color landscape. Colors pop, providing that high-def look we all crave. Shadows are nicely delineated. Edges are sharp and concise. Fine detail isn't the best we've seen, but it passes. Facial detail is intricate at its best, with minute strands of facial hair becoming perfectly visible. Skintones are always naturally rendered. Artifacts never creep in, and source noise is kept at bay.

If you're a fan 'Lottery Ticket' offers a very nice video presentation.

Audio Review

Ranking:

The DTS-HD Master Audio mix included here definitely has its moments.

With hip-hop and rap music permeating the soundtrack the sub woofer rarely finds much time to rest. Deep resonant LFE bursts forth whenever another hip-hop song graces the soundtrack. Directionality works well here, especially when Kevin has to face mobs of people trying to get at his money. Voices pop up all over the front of the soundfield as people yell out what they need help with. The rears are engaged every so often with sounds of screaming throngs of people chasing Kevin. Dialogue is well-placed and always clear. There was never a moment where voices were muffled or unintelligible.

As with the video portion, fans of 'Lottery Ticket' will find the audio presentation to be just as acceptable.

Special Features

Ranking:
  • Deleted Scenes (HD, 5 min.) – A few deleted scenes are included here. Most of them are just scenes that show more about Kevin's life and how much it sucks.

Final Thoughts

'Lottery Ticket' is derivative and stale. We've seen this movie a thousand times before. The video and audio will make fans proud, and while neither are demo-worthy, they certainly are far above average. The special features are about as generic as the movie itself. I'm recommending you skip this one, but if you can't help yourself rent it first to see what you think.