Jackpot! review

August 24, 2024 Jeffrey Lyles Awkwafina, Ayden Mayeri, Donald Elise Watkins, Jackpot!, John Cena, Paul Feig

Jackpot! probably should have been cashed out.

It’s a goofy, slapstick anything goes kind of action comedy that’s features outlandish action sequences and isn’t funny enough.

Former child actor Katie (Awkwafina, The Bad Guys) returns to Hollywood for another shot at stardom. She’s back to a very different California set in the not-so distant future of 2030. The Grand Lottery is about to reveal another winner and it’s the biggest one yet totaling over $3 billion.

In an effort to drum up more interest in the lottery, the winner can get killed and their murderer can claim the winnings for themselves. Potential assassins can use various weapons with the exception of bullets.

Claiming the Jackpot! through any other means of death-dealing is encouraged thanks to a helpful drone that updates the whereabouts of the winner every 15 minutes. This prompts some Itchy & Scratchy style violence with the creative weapons at play.

If the winner survives until sundown, they get the comedically oversized check and a photo op with Jack Grand (Murray Hill). That’s helped make protection agencies like Louis Lewis’ (Simu Liu, Barbie) vital for surviving and cashing in the big check.

Katie is oblivious to the countdown for the next Grand Lottery winner as she prepares for an audition. When an accident ruins all her clothes, Katie’s forced to borrow some from her annoying new roommate Shadi (Ayden Mayeri, Somebody I Used to Know). Naturally, Katie activates Shadi’s lottery ticket and is named the winner.

After a slapstick action sequence where various would-be killers politely wait their turn to kill Katie, she’s rescued by Noel (John Cena, Vacation Friends 2), a freelance protection agent. For only 10% of her winnings, Noel promises to keep Katie safe until sundown.

Director Paul Feig (Last Christmas) stages the action scenes like he’s auditioning for The Fall Guy 2. Characters defy physics bouncing and falling in exaggerated fashion to the point the film plays out more like a stuntman showcase than an action comedy remotely connected to reality.

At times Feig leans into Cena’s WWE physique while at other times has perfectly normal people give him trouble in these extended brawls.

Cena’s earnest demeanor makes the flat jokes land a little softer. The material doesn’t magically get better with Cena spouting the dialogue, but he plays Noel so strait-laced that he earns some decent laughs.

By the second act, Cena gets more help from Liu, who’s proven very adept at comedies with some action elements after his breakout role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings. It was kind of fun seeing Liu reunite with his MCU co-star Awkwafina.

Ironically, this felt like the kind of movie Kevin Hart would have shined. Katie is the standard Hart character of a spastic, yelling and frantically overwhelmed character Hart can pull off in his sleep now. Awkwafina constantly seems like she’s trying too hard to make scenes work, which inadvertently draws more attention to the material screenwriter Rob Yescombe provided.

Jackpot! has a wild premise and it needed to feature a harder edge like Doomsday or Smokin’ Aces for the action. Or at least have a very funny screenplay to balance out the weak, overlong fights. Lacking on both fronts, save for a few enjoyable moments from Cena and Liu, it’s best not to invest any time into Jackpot!