Jackpot Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)July 26th, 2001
JACKPOT
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2001 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
JACKPOT, the second picture by the Polish brothers, director and co-writer Michael Polish and co-writer Mark Polish, tackles the world of competitive karaoke singing. Their first film, TWIN FALLS IDAHO, a love story with co-joined twins, was one of a kind. But people will, undoubtedly, compare their latest film with last year's hopeless DUETS, another family affair, featuring father Bruce Paltrow as the director and daughter Gwyneth Paltrow as the star. The surprise is that the disappointing DUETS is the livelier of the two. Even without the DUETS comparison, however, the gloomy JACKPOT has all of the fizz of a soda left open overnight.
When we meet Sunny Holiday (Jon Gries) and his manager Lester Irving (Garrett Morris), they are on a 43-city tour in an old, shocking pink land yacht. Looking like they haven't got a nickel to their name, they brag to a reporter that Sunny has made a fortune. How much exactly? Well, "thousands." Lester always gets his fifteen percent, which one night means that his total earnings amount to the lid on the blender that Sunny wins. Grizzled veterans of the karaoke wars, they both sport scraggly beards and cheap clothing. About the only thing that separates them in physical appearance is that Sunny is a middle aged white guy, while Lester is an older black man. Lester is fond of asking the good Lord's help before Sunny heads to the stage for the evening's battle. In other long, uninteresting scenes, Lester offers Sunny lots of unsolicited advice on how to be successful. "Sleeping in a car doesn't guarantee you'll become a star," is one of the aphorisms that Lester comes up with. Lester is clearly someone who never takes his own advice.
The movie features some known actors in cameo performances. Daryl Hannah plays Sunny's wife, Bobbi. In repetitive flashbacks, she keeps expressing her strong displeasure with his "fantasy tour." Anthony Edwards shows up, and that's about it. The best piece of work comes from Peggy Lipton ("The Mod Squad") as a woman who has a one-night stand with Sunny.
It's never clear what kind of movie JACKPOT wants to be. Among the stranger subplots are one involving soap scamming and another about a Lolita-like seductress named Tangerine (Camellia Clouse), who only wants Sunny "to sign her yearbook." Tangi, as she likes to be called, looks to be a 16-year-old going on 13. Dressed in frilly and revealing clothes, she lures Sunny into a pink bedroom that looks like it should belong to her younger sister. What happens or, more precisely, what doesn't quite happen there is either funny or creepy, but it's not clear which. JACKPOT is like that scene. It's not clear how to take it, and with its lack of energy, we end up not caring.
JACKPOT runs 1:35. It is rated R for language and sexuality and would be acceptable for most teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, August 17, 2001. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas and the AMC theaters.
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