Lottery Ticket (2010 film)

Kevin Carson (Bow Wow) is a young man living in the projects with his grandmother (Loretta Devine). Kevin dreams of one day designing his own sneaker line, but currently works at Foot Locker. His dreams are supported by two of his best friends: Benny (Brandon T. Jackson) and Stacey (Naturi Naughton). He comes across Lorenzo (Gbenga Akinnagbe), the neighborhood bully. Meanwhile, everyone in his neighborhood is trying to win the Mondo Million Dollar Lottery of $370 million.

Lorenzo demands that Kevin gives him and his three friends three sets of sneakers each for free. When Lorenzo shows up to Kevin's job at Foot Locker, and grabs the shoes, the alarms go off and the police arrive, after Lorenzo claims Kevin gave him the shoes as a gift, he attempts to explain to the police that he did not intend to give the shoes to Lorenzo, Lorenzo is arrested for shoplifting and Kevin loses his job.

On his way home, he buys a Mondo Millionaire Lottery ticket at a gas station, playing his grandmother's and his lucky numbers. He meets Benny, who tells him that the whole neighborhood heard that Kevin "snitched" on Lorenzo, and is even called one by their friends. Defeated, Kevin goes home and quickly falls asleep. Later, the numbers of the lottery are announced. Grandma's ticket doesn't win, but Kevin finds out that his own ticket has won him $370 million.

However, when he and Benny head to the claims office, they are told that they must wait three days for the office to reopen, due to the Fourth of July weekend. News of Kevin's winning ticket spreads, and the entire neighborhood swarms him and his home, begging for a cut of the money. Nikki Swayze (Teairra Marí) who previously rejected Kevin, suddenly develops an interest in him.

This angers Stacey, who tells Kevin that Nikki is only after his money, but Kevin does not believe it. Kevin and Benny meet a loan shark, Sweet Tee (Keith David), who gives Kevin $100,000 to go out and have fun. After her date with Kevin, Nikki secretly tries to make him get her pregnant, but Kevin refuses. Nikki then reveals to Kevin that she was legally trying to get half of his money, by having a baby with him. He leaves the house angry and upset. Upon leaving the building, a man calls him from the basement window. Kevin meets Mr. Washington (Ice Cube), a retired boxer, who invites him to his house for a conversation.

The next day, Kevin attends church with his grandmother until Benny comes in and tells him that Lorenzo is looking for him and the ticket. Lorenzo comes in and is stopped by the churchgoers. Kevin tries to escape, but he's confronted by Lorenzo's crew. Sweet Tee's bodyguard saves Kevin with his gun, but Lorenzo emerges and physically breaks his hand. Then, Kevin runs to the train station with Lorenzo and his boys chasing him. Kevin leaps onto the train thinking he's safe, but Lorenzo gets on, too. However Kevin hops off before the doors close. The train leaves the station with Lorenzo on.

Later that day, Kevin and Benny have an argument about the ticket which leads to them not speaking to each other. He goes to Stacey's house, and she tells Kevin that she thinks he was wrong about the entire situation. He also tells her that she is the girl for him, which leads to her getting angry and telling him to get out. He kisses her and she responds accordingly, but they are interrupted by the arrival of her mother.

As Kevin leaves her house, Lorenzo knocks him unconscious and takes one of Kevin's sneakers and ticket. The following day, he wakes up in the apartment of Mr. Washington, who talks with him. Kevin also takes time to reconcile with Benny. They make a scheme to fool Lorenzo that the ticket is fake, which later upsets Lorenzo. Later, the neighborhood has a block party and Kevin learns that Sweet Tee will torture him if he doesn't pay back the loan.

Lorenzo arrives, defeats Sweet Tee and beats Kevin to the point where he forces Kevin to give him the fake ticket through gunpoint. Just as Kevin submits, Mr. Washington appears from behind and knocks Lorenzo unconscious, being hailed a hero to the neighborhood. Afterwards, Benny tells Kevin to give him the lottery ticket for protection and when the day came, Kevin gets the money.

Months later, Kevin started his sneaker company with Benny as his CEO and Stacy as his future attorney and is implied to have paid Sweet Tee back. He also opens a park with Mr. Washington appointed as head security and a foundation that will help the community such as fund businesses and provide scholarships. After giving a speech to the neighborhood, Kevin, Benny and Stacey board Kevin's new helicopter and fly off to work.

• Bow Wow as Kevin Carson
• Ice Cube as Jerome “Thump” Washington
• Brandon T. Jackson as Benny
• Naturi Naughton as Stacy
• Loretta Devine as Grandma Dorothy Carson
• Gbenga Akinnagbe as Lorenzo Mack
• Keith David as Sweet Tee
• Terry Crews as Jimmy
• Charlie Murphy as "Semaj" (James)
• Teairra Marí as Nikki Swayze
• Jason Weaver as Ray Ray
• Leslie Jones as Tasha
• Vince Green as Malik
• Malieek Straughter as Deangelo
• T-Pain as Junior
• Bill Bellamy as Giovanni Watson
• Mike Epps as Reverend Taylor
• Chris Williams as Doug
• IronE Singleton as Tucker
• Jayson Warner Smith as Charlie (Uncredited)
• Lil Twist as Lil J.

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 35% based on 81 reviews, with an average rating of 4.89/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "There's a worthwhile message at the heart of Lottery Ticket, but it's buried under stale humor, tired stereotypes, and obvious clichés."[3] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.

The following is a track listing of songs for the film, Lottery Ticket. Songs marked with an '*' are just songs that can be briefly heard in the film.

• List of black films of the 2010s
• List of hood films

• Official website
• Lottery Ticket at AllMovie
• Lottery Ticket at Box Office Mojo
• Lottery Ticket at IMDb
• Lottery Ticket at Rotten Tomatoes