When the bank begins making foreclosure noises, Russ turns to topless-bar owner Gig (Roth) for advice, resulting in a bungled insurance fraud scam that involves high-strung Dale the Thug (Rapaport) and soon spirals into a plan to fix the Pennsylvania state lotto, with a helping hand from bitchy Lotto girl Crystal (Kudrow). He has his own private booth at Denny's, a swell mansion overlooking lovely Harrisburg, and a sideline running a snowmobile outlet that, as Lucky Numbers opens, is facing some tough times due to an uncooperative and unseasonable winter heatwave. Set, for some unknown reason, in 1988, Travolta plays Russ Richards, a “wacky” Pennsylvania weatherman prone to on-air shenanigans and beloved by all. Ron Hubbard opus dei and this tale of a conniving Harrisburg weatherman facing financial ruin, I'll take the six-foot-tall, Snidely Whiplash-esque alien for $200, Alex. Mind you, he's not toting around half the special make-up in this one (unless you count his bizarrely spreading girth - the actor looks like a linebacker, or maybe Henry Rollins, in a cheap suit here), but still, given the choice between that L. Compared to Lucky Numbers, an unfortunate teaming of Ephron (who previously directed Travolta in Michael) and writer Adam Resnick (Cabin Boy), Travolta's Scientology experiment gone awry seems downright sublime. Suddenly Battlefield Earth doesn't look so bad.
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