The Luckiest Man In America-Movie Review In Theaters Friday, April 4, 2025

I am not sure who thought this might be an interesting idea.  I think it might have been best used as a skit on SNL, or even a short film. To give it any more time than that is doing a disservice to the overall story and the talent that is a part of the film.

Paul Walter Hauser, who plays Micheal, is not a very good actor and it really shows here, mind you the material is not very good. If we were to compare this to 1994's Quiz Show, which was directed by Robert Redford and went on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, this pales in comparison. At best, this feels like a made-for-TV movie of the week.

It was interesting at first, the semi-realism that they were able to create with the sets and the small studio setting, there were some decent aspects to the film. 

Behind the scenes on a set is almost done to death now, with the backstage gossip, backstabbing, etc to the point of tiresome. 

Last year's September 5 was a great behind-the-scenes film of the 1972 Olympic games when there was a hostage situation.

I didn't feel that this story had anything new or original to offer, a sort of story that could be a feel-good kind of story but becomes messy and a lot of what happens later in the film is not convincing.

The story is of an ice cream truck driver, Micheal, who has found a way to win big on the TV game show in the 1980s' called "Press Your Luck". Walton  Goggins plays the host of the show, he and many others in the film are quite good in their roles. He is also in another recent film I will be reviewing soon, Queen of the Ring.

Micheal(Paul Walter Hauser) keeps pressing his luck, much to the dismay of the CBS executives, but even this part of the film doesn't help, at first, it is treated as if he is robbing a bank, when all that he has done is figure out how the game is played and won. They then feel that he is going to be a household name, so they encourage him to keep winning and they will promote it on their channel and they will also be winners. This is a part of what happened so not blaming the filmmakers for this part.

It's a lot of back of forth, and then the ending made me scratch my head what it was trying to tell the audience, but it was never really speaking to anyone but itself in the end. Not engaging at all, I went into this wanting to like this, but I clearly did not.

Almost unrecognizable in his role as Chuck(Shamier Anderson-above) was also in John Wick 4 as Mr. Nobody.