Title: Lottery Ticket
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Erik White
Starring: Bow Wow, Brandon T. Jackson
Runtime: 1 hour 39 minutes

What It Is? Kevin Carson (Bow Wow) live in the projects with his grandmother. Kevin does what he can from day to day to help said grandmother, including working at a local Foot Locker. This is great for Kevin because he LOVES sneakers. In fact he’s wanted his own show company since he was a wee lad. This as you can see is incredibly hard since his family is poor. That’s the very least of Kevin’s daily problems. Lorenzo (Gbenga Akinnagbe) the crazy neighborhood bully REALLY hates Kevin. All Kevin has other then his God warrior grandmother are his best friends Benny (Brandon T. Jackson), and Stacie (Naturi Naughton). All seems status quo in Kevin’s life until one day his grandmother asks him to play her lottery numbers. While down at the local liquor store to play his grandma’s numbers Kevin decides to play the numbers he got out of a fortune cookie at Stacie’s work. Kevin’s numbers hit, he’s just won 370 million dollars! Unfortunately for Kevin this bliss will be short lived as the lottery office is closed for the Fourth of July weekend. Out come the sharks! All with an eye on Kevin’s money. Including the set of eyes belonging to Lorenzo, who wants Kevin’s ticket in exchange for his life.

What We Think? This is suppose to be a comedy, but in all honesty its not funny. A lot of the jokes fall flat on their face. And the jokes that do work are recycled from other movies. Let’s not even start the discussion on the lame and tired stereotypes with which most of the characters are presented. You have the over the top preacher (Mike Epps) who has a fever and the only prescription is more money in his tithe. I think I saw this character type somewhere before. Oh wait Katt Williams did it in First Sunday, and was much funnier despite that film being a steaming pile. It’s still a stereotype and that is just one of the many that plague this movie that for me was doomed from the start. Bow Wow and Jackson try very hard to keep the terrible material appealing through their on-screen friendship but it isn’t enough to hold it all together. There dynamic is their but you could get a much better friendship watching another Ice Cube movie Friday, he and Chris Tucker show the chemistry needed here to at the very least allow this film a chance.

Our Score: F, Sadly this film doesn’t have the gusto to get off the ground let alone soar. It is plague by a weak narrative, and a terrible story. Its thrown into an odd area when we meet Sweet Tee (Keith David) a “ghetto godfather” of sorts. Overall Lottery Ticker buys a ticket but can’t sustain the ride and that alas is what makes this film such an epic misfire. Ice Cube seems to be a walking box office failure that’s another strike against it. Point blank this film is terrible. We’re sorry but it is.