Lottery Ticket ★★★ out of four stars • Rating: PG-13 for crude humor, language.

This isn't the Mega Ball of comedy, but it's still a winner because of the way director Erik White blends comic lunacy with sweet sentimentality. Kevin (Bow Wow), a good-hearted but hormone-driven teen living with his grandmother in the projects, is suddenly $370 million richer when he wins a nationwide lottery. His moment of bliss turns into trouble as his family, friends and criminals all want a piece of the prize.

Bow Wow has worked in TV and films for several years but this is the first time he's shown real acting skills. Without his solid performance, "Lottery Ticket" would be just a series of silly cameos. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Mike Epps, T-Pain, Charlie Murphy and Terry Crews, while Ice Cube's portrayal of a broken-down boxer creates a sweet undertone.

RICK BENTLEY, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

Nora's Will

★★★1/2 out of four stars • Not rated • Where: Parkway.

Death is only the beginning in this keenly observant and kosher Jewish-Mexican chagigah, wherein a middle-aged woman's suicide leaves a bountiful community in its wake. Just before Passover, Jose Kurtz (splendidly played by Fernando Lujan) finds his ex-wife, Nora, dead of an overdose, her holiday meal almost fully prepared. Juggling the intricate rituals of Judaism and suicide (while noting the incompatibility of the two), first-time director Mariana Chenillo coaxes a healthy dose of comedy out of her drama. Literally keeping Nora's body on ice, a rabbi's chosen man, Moises (Enrique Arreola), stands guard over the late woman's spirit -- and dabbles in cooking. Water boils, secrets bubble to the surface, and an extended family enjoys the departed's food. The final ingredient of Chenillo's spicy recipe seems a touch too plain, but "Nora's Will" issues dividends well into the future. (In Spanish, subtitled.)

ROB NELSON

Vampires Suck

1/2 out of four stars • Rating: PG-13 for sexual content, comic violence, language and teen partying.

Vampires suck? That's a matter of opinion. But here's what inarguably, unequivocally does suck: This painfully unfunny "Twilight" spoof that arrived at least a year too late to seem even semi-culturally relevant. Writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer -- responsible for a parade of movie-genre parodies, including "Scary Movie" and "Date Movie" -- have set their comedic cross hairs on a target that's already been dissected, debated and, yes, satirized ad nauseam. It does toss in a few general pop culture gags, busting predictably on everyone from the Kardashians to Chris Brown.

One bright note: Newcomer Jenn Proske absolutely nails the nervous pauses, lip-biting and twitchy behavior that characterizes Kristen Stewart's portrayal in "Twilight." She deserves better material.

JEN CHANEY, WASHINGTON POST

Videocracy

★★★★ out of four stars • Not rated • Where: St. Anthony Main

George Orwell's Big Brother brainwashed the masses with video screens spewing propaganda and Puritanism. Italy's longest-serving prime minister and media king, Silvio Berlusconi, uses political censorship and mind-numbing soft porn. Berlusconi owns or controls 95 percent of Italy's terrestrial television. His programming features lots of so-called Velinas, shapely signorinas who smile, stay silent and shimmy in G-strings. As "Videocracy" demonstrates at the crowded auditions, there is now an endless supply of nubile women who see the job as a steppingstone to a favorable marriage.

Filmmaker Erik Gandini takes a personal, subjective approach, abandoning any pretense of objectivity as he interviews Berlusconi's associates. He sees the constant trash-TV diet of soap opera, soccer and sex as a new form of bread and circuses. Watching this tragicomic film, you have to agree: It looks as if Rome is burning. (In Italian, subtitled.)

COLIN COVERT

Patrik, Age 1.5

★★★ 1/2 out of four stars • Not rated • Where: Lagoon.

Tanya Tucker belting on the soundtrack of a Swedish romantic comedy is not something you hear every day, but she fits right in with the general eccentricity of "Patrik, Age 1.5." Her song "Love Me Like You Used To" warns us that Sven (Torkel Petersson), one half of a gay married couple, is feeling dissatisfied. Impatiently awaiting the arrival of an adopted baby boy, he and his partner, Goran (Gustaf Skarsgård), are horrified to receive Patrik (Thomas Ljungman), a 15-year-old homophobe with vaguely criminal tendencies. Not even Tucker has a song to help with that.

Sweet, generous and tonally sure, "Patrik" has a nostalgic feel, and not just because of a soundtrack skewed toward last-millennium tunes and a hyperreal suburban setting lifted straight from "Pleasantville." Embracing cliché and cleverness equally, director Ella Lemhagen stares down prejudice with a nudge and a wink rather than a soapbox. (In Swedish, subtitled.)

JEANNETTE CATSOULIS, NEW YORK TIMES