#33: Lucky Numbers/Captain Corelli's Mandolin

This week, Nathan and Clint go it alone to compare two strange curios in Travolta and Cage’s respective careers — Nora Ephron’s post-Battlefield Earth comedy flop Lucky Numbers and the painfully-earnest romantic war drama Captain Corelli’s Mandolin! While it got a critical drubbing upon release (no small thanks to the lingering stink of Travolta’s Terl), Lucky Numbers surprisingly holds up as a pitch-black comedy — with a script by Death to Smoochy’s Adam Resnick — about a down-on-his-luck local weatherman (Travolta) who teams up with the ditzy but scheming lotto girl (Lisa Kudrow) to rig the state lottery. It feels a lot like Fargo if everyone was William H. Macy, and every cast member, including Travolta’s sniveling showman, is in goofily top form. The same can’t be said for Captain Corellian’s Mandalorian, a weepy adaptation of the Louis de Bernières novel about an Italian soldier (Cage, slathering on the alfredo in his halting accent) who falls in love with a Greek girl (Penelope Cruz, similarly lost at sea with her accent work) amidst their occupation of a saintly little island during World War II. Christian Bale and John Hurt are here too, and for two-plus hours you’re just scratching your head wondering why Shakespeare in Love director John Madden (the one who isn’t the former spokesman for ACE Hardware) didn’t just put this awkward, messy epic in subtitles. Pledge to our Patreon at patreon.com/travoltacage Follow us on Twitter @travoltacage Email us questions at [email protected] Podcast theme by Jon Biegen Podcast logo by Felipe Sobreiro