The Lottery (1996)

The greatest movie ever made..!

Dreadfully Boring

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

I found this movie very boring. Slow on the suspense with maybe a couple of good actors waisted in their roles. Notablly, William Daniels and Salome Jens whom I have always respected in their work. But not even their presence helped this loser. It seems impossible that any town anywhere could get away with what this town does. And why would anyone wish to remain if it did. Chalk it up to stupidity and/or ignorance on their part.The two leads seemed to be walking through the movie. Both Cortese and Russell, looking very attractive, gave a two level performance. Their faces never seemed to change expression throughout the film. They just stare at each other. I guess you blame the director for that. Miss Russell is eye fetching, but not an actress. Mr. Cortese, also eye fetching, is rather one level. He runs good.INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was better. Don't waste your time. 2 stars for Daniels and Jens' courage to make this chestnut.

The short story The Lottery (by the late great Ms. Jackson) has three major points that make it gut-wrenching:1.) The fact that a woman is stoned to death 2.) The fact that the woman had participated in stoning people up to the time of her death 3.) The fact that, in the story, this is an accepted American pastimeThis movie (if you can call it that) completely forsakes No. 3, and all but ruins No.'s 1 and 2. After an endless and pointless journey into a small town with a secret, a forgotten past, and a love story (it sounds stupid already), we finally get to the Lottery. The events don't come as a surprise, even though they should. Then the movie wraps itself up into a neat little package complete with an ending as lackluster as a lump of coal. The truly sad thing is that I saw this movie in a Liturature class. Bottom line: They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

There are some things in this world that are tied very exclusively to one time period, and though their essence is eternal, there is a need, sometimes, to bring subtle changes to the details in order to allow other generations to share in their merit. Unfortunately for the film version, 'The Lottery' is not one of these. The original short story by Shirley Jackson is the perfect encapsulation of every interesting facet the story had to offer. it beautifully and subtly creates tension and then shocking horror, and makes us question ourselves and the things we hold to be normal. It does all this in a few scant pages.The movie drags on and on for about an hour and a half, and the payoff is exactly the same. Along the way you have to sit through mercilessly lame acting and flat, dull characters. The idea that the town has a mysterious secret is introduced almost immediately, but the film's final climax is where everything is revealed. Simple enough, but it unfortunately means that through the vast bulk of the movie, the same theme is repeated over and over. Jason comes to a situation that seems mysterious. But the townies won't tell him what's going on! Even if it were well acted, even if the subplots were remotely engaging, there just isn't any way to get around the tedious repetition. And folks, the acting is not good. And the subplots are just corny as all hell. Keri Russel in particular seems unfathomably cast. She stands out as totally inappropriate for the role of a small-town girl with her modern vernacular and of course her suspiciously flawless tan. Most of the other character actors just play the predictable role of "belligerent small town sheriff" and the like. Nothing to see here. The film particularly produces groans with it's implausible romance -replete with an exploding car, natch - and absurdly vague expository dialog.As for the end, its executed with appropriate style. But the wait it takes to get there just isn't justified. All and all, the film can't get past the troublesome point that there just isn't enough there to fill an hour and a half. Read the short story instead, its impact is at least as potent. And considerably more eloquent as well.

I found this movie completely sickening and disgusting. Now I'm not one to give out bad movie reviews but this was just horrible. There's no question about it, something was mentally wrong with the person who wrote this. It's just unbelievably inhumane. The ideas in the movie are just so farfetched and horrible, I can't believe someone actually would want to see a movie about people getting pelted to death with rocks by their friends and family and neighbors all because they won a lottery. It's just a stupid movie. I reccomend that if it's on, just keep channel flipping.