not a great twelve months for either of the principals from this movie . earlier this year , nora ephron wrote and produced one of the year's least likeable " comedies " called hanging up , featuring a bunch of annoying women ( ironically , lisa kudrow played one in that film as well ) who barely have time to care about anyone but themselves . ick . . . real sweet stuff . but her little unsuccessful project was nothing compared to what john travolta went through earlier this summer , with a film entitled battlefield earth . i seemed to be the only person on this planet who somehow appreciated the film , even if it was on a " cheese " factor , as everybody , and i mean everybody else , pretty much classified the movie as one of the worst disasters of all time . yipes . . . another beauty . so what happens when you put these two people in the same room and come out with a movie co-starring the ever-versatile lisa kudrow ? <NEG> uhhhm , you guessed it . . . not much </NEG> . plot : in order to escape major financial difficulties , a local weatherman hooks up with his ball-picking lotto girlfriend and rigs the state lottery . but as more and more people find out about their scheme , more and more people demand a part of their winnings , and more and more problems arise . critique : simply stated , <NEG> i didn't laugh once during this entire picture . for a comedy , it offered me a few smiles , a bunch of nincompoops as characters , a miscast </NEG> john travolta hamming it up and lisa kudrow , in what can only described as a " sluttier " version of her character of phoebe on tv's " friends " . this film was not as disastrous as i thought it would be , but it was pretty close . thankfully , the clips of travolta dressed up in goofy outfits , dancing as the weatherman were left in the film's trailer , and not in this final cut . <NEG> and not unlike the worst movie of the year so far , beautiful , this film also managed to feature many unsympathetic , idiotic and just plain irritating characters in its cast </NEG> . foremost was travolta's character , who declined to give us any reason to care for him once in the entire movie . and for me , the casting choice of john travolta for this role <NEG> was just plain wrong . he didn't fit the part </NEG> . i just saw him in get shorty the other day and thought about how perfect he was for that role . a cool , calculating roughneck with a certain hip , suave " je ne sais quoi " . in this film , he looks like he's trying to be funny , trying to be bad , trying to be good . we're not supposed to be able to notice that , and when we do , at least in my case , <NEG> i consider it a wrong choice in casting </NEG> . add that to lisa kudrow , <NEG> boring us with yet another one of her patented " dumb blonde " routines </NEG> , but this time , dressed in sexier outfits . michael rapaport , stretching one small acting muscle to play the guy who isn't quite up at the same speed level as everyone else . and <NEG> a truckload of empty comedic bullet shells </NEG> , and you've got yourself <NEG> an extremely quiet audience anticipating punch lines that never quite materialize </NEG> . the only real good thing that i could say about this film is that its story was actually half-interesting and never really bored me . i also liked michael moore's perverted cousin character , and i loved , and i say it again , loved the character that bill pullman played . give this dude his own movie ! he played a lazy cop , a man who tries everything not to do any real work . he fakes injuries to get off duty , tries to avoid arrest situations so that he won't have to fill out any forms . . . now there's a base of humor . <NEG> sadly </NEG> , the filmmakers decided to bring him into play with only about half an hour left in the film . and there's not much else i can say about this movie , folks . on the whole , <NEG> it was lame , included a slew of unlikable characters fiddling around in a pool of unfunny lines , and very little of interest for any target audience </NEG> . but get somebody to write up a movie featuring that lazy cop played by pullman and i'm there !
