Luck of the Draw

No five words say `straight to video' quite as effortlessly as `from the director of GHOULIES'. As far as I can gather, LUCK OF THE DRAW is the only film in two decades to earn this label. Director Luca Bercovici has also gathered together a b-grade rat-pack to star in his comeback film.

The video A-list come in all shapes and sizes. Michael Madsen is an acclaimed poet, and Dennis Hopper directed THE LAST MOVIE and EASY RIDER. Along with respected artists, the film boasts a bit-part for Ice T (transitional rapper), some kid apparently in GLADIATOR, and Eric Roberts, who never needed to pay cinema admission to see his own work.

It starts off a bit like a b-grade rip-off of Michael Mann's HEAT, a contradiction in terms seeing as that film is the greatest of all cops & robbers pictures. It ends a little bit like.put it this way, if you haven't ever seen this ending, you spent the '90's under a rock.

There are only two types of DTV films worth renting: those that are surprisingly good, or those that are woefully bad. In that sense, LUCK OF THE DRAW is a failure because it is average all the way.