Lucky You was going to get annihilated at the
box office this weekend was a foregone conclusion, opening as it did at
2,525 venues against Spider-Man 3, which played on more than
10,000 screens at 4,250 locations. Still, the scale of the sacrificial
slaughter was relatively astounding. Mega-blockbuster run-off these days apparently suffers from a bone-dry tributary. Spider-Man 3, of course, posted new record numbers this past weekend, opening to $150 million. Lucky You, meanwhile, rang up a meager $2.5 million, debuting in sixth place, below the sophomore-week runs of The Invisible and Next, as well as slightly more stalwart holdovers like Disturbia and Fracture.

A Las Vegas-set poker drama of coded glances and emphatic table taps directed by Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys), Lucky You suffers from co-writer Eric Roth’s terribly dull and
ambling screenplay, and doesn’t have enough energy to sustain itself even as a
sub-cultural curio. To follow or focus on a character devoid of much
big-picture ambition is fine, and achievable. But the rousting of cardsharp Huck (Eric Bana) from
personal stasis feels both overly plotted and still lacking. And the
picture’s romance is a complete non-starter; it’s not so much that Bana and Drew Barrymore lack any chemistry as that their characters have no reason to be
together. Barrymore’s would-be singer Billie is a complete cipher, leaving the actress to cycle
through her familiar catalogue of coy, relatable-girl affectations. For the full review, from FilmStew, click here.