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Rating:  - Hilarious
This film is underrated and underappreciated. I've shown it to several friends and they thought it was great also.
Can't say enough about Lisa Kudrow in this film, every scene she's in, she steals. Michael Moore's last scene with Lisa Kudrow is classic. They did a great job! If you like a good, dark comedy, this film is for you!
Rating:  - These reviews are all false...
I'm dumbfounded by some of the reviews this page...guess they just didn't "get" it. This film is hilarious. It's clever, witty and extremely entertaining. Travolta is classic as the pathetic "gameshow-host wannabe" weather man. The characters are so well defined and so sadly pathetic in their own ways - it's what makes the film such a classic comedy. It's unbelievable that more people have not caught on to it. If you liked the Big Lebowski, Orange County, the Cable Guy - any film with esoteric characterization, you will absolutely love this film. It's a dark comedy people, get over it.
Rating:  - Definitely NOT a comedy but...
It's an interesting approach at what people will do for money. Still, I hated it. John Travolta was terrible [as usual]. Lisa Kudrow, who was the reason I watched this, was so incredibly unlike her role on "Friends" as she was a murderous goldigging nympho-biatch who made you mad every time she was on screen. I was very disappointed with her performance. I can't believe this hilarious comedic actress went for such a ... part. The other supporting actors were no good either with the exception of Bill Pullman, who was pretty funny as the "I could give a damn about it" cop. The best thing about this movie though, is the cute, gullible waitress named Wendy who's only on screen about five minutes throughout the entire film. Anyway, skip this one. It was just plain awful.
Rating:  - Just saw it on TV for the first time
Not only was the movie set in Harrisburg, most of it was filmed in Harrisburg, as well as the suburbs(Palmyra, Hampden Township and Wormleysburg) and is loosely based on the Real Lottery scam in Pennsylvania on April 24, 1980 when the Daily Pick 3 game was rigged by the station announcer in Pittsburgh (the Late Nick Perry, who I had the pleasure of growing up watching do various bowling programs. In Pittsburgh, "Bowling for dollars aired immediately after the drawing on Channel 4, WTAE.) Just like in the movies all but the #4 and #6 balls were injected with paint, and 6-6-6 came up. The drawings were moved to WHP-TV (channel 21) the next day, where State Officials kept a better eye on things. Nick and the stage hands at channel 4 went to Jail (here in Camp Hill).
So the story was as advertised, amusing, not great; and it was great to see big time celebreties visit town. Especially Ed O'neill. Those of us who lived in Harrisburg for a long time will get the inside jokes, and geographic references. My wife yelled at me, when I was over-commenting, finding bloopers, and trying to pick out the local scenery, most of which had buildings remodeled, and again shot outside of Harrisburg in the suburbs. So some of the local bloopers showed Russ trying to drive the truck down Route 22 and Devonshire Road (in Downtown Colonial Park, where I live), and it wrecked. Was he trying to get to I-81 or I-83? Not the way to get to Colorado from Harrisburg. Eighteen wheelers don't go down Devonshire Road (winding and hilly and two-laned)too well, and Rt. 22 at that intersection is a 6-lane divided highway. There is actually an auto dealer at that corner, but was not used in the filming.
Like I said us locals caught some of the inside jokes (like the Perry County School Teacher who locked the student in the broom closet, and the mobster from Linglestown), which made the movie more enjoyable than the critics gave it credit for.
For those who don't know although there is no channel 6 in Harrisburg, there is (sort of) well, was really WTPA-TV. WTPA-Radio is still on the air. New owners years ago changed the call letters to WHTM, and is actually channel 27. Keeping that in mind, Al Bundy, er, Dick Simmons comments on real-life then WTPA now WHTM weatherman Chuck Rhoades, who has a breif cameo in the movie, and on whom Travolta's character is loosely based (Actually Bill Murray's wheaterman in Groundhog Day is closer to the real Chuck Rhoades, a thirty year fixture on local TV). To me, Chuck is the big star in the movie, even though he is eeen from a distance for a few seconds. Chuck's best acting job to date. And he wasn't acting! That clip is from 1988 when the movie was set, when Harrisburg had one of its biggest heatwaves ever. Anothe Harrisburg weatherman, Don Rooney has a cameo scene at the TV station.
When the movie was filmed out here, it was the biggest deal to hit Harrisburg , since the Three Mile Island accident. Yes, Harrisburg is really like that-- and Denny's is the Classiest Bistro in Town, at least the one in Hampden Township (US Rte. 11--where JT is seen jaywalking to the Evergreen (actually Hampden) Diner.
All in all an enjoyable movie for us in Harrisburg.
Rating: - Funny, Amusing Dark Comedy
Not The best comedey i've seen in recent years but Travolta just
shines as the arrogant T.v Weatherman Russ Richards who with a
not so bright ditzy blonde and a bar owner friend plan to to fix
his station's lottery money to himself as a way out of his finacial troubles. Travolta has a flare for harmless comedy and seems to be having fun in doing so and does not take the script too serlously. Lisa Kudrow is also funny endearing to the part quite well. This is the kind of film you want to watch when you want to forget about the pressures of life for a little while.
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