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Jackpot
Sony Pictures Classics

Jackpot reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 49 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
9.0 out of 10
based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 1 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for language and sexuality

Starring Jon Gries, Daryl Hannah, Garrett Morris, Ricky Trammell, and Peggy Lipton

A film about the road to fame -- fame at any cost, at any level. (Sony Pictures Classics)


GENRE(S): Musical  
WRITTEN BY: Mark Polish
Michael Polish
 
DIRECTED BY: Michael Polish  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: December 18, 2001 
Video: December 18, 2001 
Theatrical: July 27, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

88
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Filled with bleak, beautiful Hopperesque tableaus and strange characters whose lives intersect.
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80
Washington Post Desson Thomson
It's a movie full of quietly assured flourishes: elegant camera compositions, wonderful uses of silence and an entertainingly eclectic cast, including Peggy Lipton as a sensitive bartender.
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78
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Its doomed portrait of guileless dreamers may be found lacking in plot activity and empathetic characters. But for anyone interested in a movie that wipes clean the grungy patina of self-delusionment, Jackpot hits solid pay dirt.
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75
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Gries and Morris act up a storm as the optimistically named Sunny Holiday and his long-suffering manager.
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75
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
The acting is primo and the cinematography, on high-definition video by the gifted M. David Mullen, is striking.
70
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Potential irony is everywhere in this movie's subtly surreal situations and candy-colored imagery.
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63
Boston Globe Jay Carr
Bummer theater.
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60
Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
The more we realize that we're stuck in the company of a totally relentless loser, the drearier the entire experience becomes.
58
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
It's as self consciously arty and fragmented as ''Twin Falls'' was controlled and organically built.
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50
New York Post Lou Lumenick
Barely enough chuckles to keep from running out of gas. Yet it's the sharpest-looking movie shot so far on digital video, outdistancing even "The Anniversary Party."
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50
San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer
The filmmakers throw in an extended flatulence routine and enough graphic references to female anatomy to make "The Vagina Monologues" blush.
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50
USA Today Claudia Plig
Essentially a one-gag film.
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50
Miami Herald Connie Ogle
Jackpot ends up a lot like Sunny's singing: pointless and more than a little flat.
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50
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
In its mastery of its moments, Jackpot has charm, humor and poignancy. What it lacks is necessity. There's a sense in which we're always waiting for it to kick in.
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40
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Jackpot has much that is sweet and funny, but it is not overly original--and it is overly long and not as coherent as it might be.
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40
Variety Ken Eisner
A candidate for quiet cult status.
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40
New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
Where "Twin Falls" was slow, brooding and haunting in a manner that fit the subject matter -- the imminent death of one of the principal characters -- Jackpot is just slow and uneventful, like a cross-country Greyhound bus trip that never stops.
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40
The New York Times A.O. Scott
The movie is smart in small ways, yet an underachiever in big ones -- but it will probably play very well on television. On the big screen, it's distended and diffuse.
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40
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
This dogged journey of self-delusion is interrupted periodically by snippets of footage...that promise a dark revelation that would give an edge to the otherwise tedious goings-on but, sadly, never materializes.
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38
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Shows that there's a limit to how much mileage one can get from offbeat, creepy and symbiotic.
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33
Portland Oregonian Barry Johnson
A very depressing movie.
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30
LA Weekly Manohla Dargis
The mood is hermetic to the point of claustrophobia, embellished with a sense of everyday surrealism indebted to David Lynch.
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30
Village Voice Amy Taubin
Michael and Mark Polish's debut feature, "Twin Falls, Idaho," was a cloying oddball love story involving adult male Siamese twins; their follow-up, Jackpot, is another piece of whimsical Americana.
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30
Washington Post Rita Kempley
Nobody hits the jackpot here, certainly not filmmakers Michael and Mark Polish, whose audacious, empathic first film, "Twin Falls Idaho," showed such promise.
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What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 9.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Nick D. gave it a 9:
Following the beautiful "Twin Falls Idaho", the Polish Brothers made a vastly unappreciated ode to the American dream with "Jackpot". This is the most touching and unique film of its kind since "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". Yes, there is an obvious style over substance approach, but hey-it's a road movie. When so many other similar films fall flat by stretching out their paper-thin stories, "Jackpot" utilizes its keen style to inject energy and introduce enigmatic underlying themes. "Jackpot" is unforgettable, although in no way comparable to "Twin Falls Idaho". This is the Polish Brothers having fun, and the result is a highly entertaining and poignant road movie.

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