For the global press conference for Jackpot!, director Paul Feig mentioned that he ultimately took on the film because it was the “Jackie Chan movie (he) always wanted to make.” And it’s in that spirit that this comedic actioner is best viewed, where the two genres co-exist as one and the same and the silliness is ultimately intentional.
Now, that’s not to say Feig has made a slam dunk by any means. The man has achieved far greater heights in the action-comedy field with his Melissa McCarthy features Spy and The Heat, and you can’t help but wish the same care and flourishes he expressed with those features were on display across Jackpot!‘s 100-or-so minutes.
What we do get though is an initially amusing riff on the horror series The Purge, which centred on an America ravaged by crime and overcrowded prisons, so much so that the government sanctions an annual 12-hour period during which all criminal activity, including murder, is legal. It was a fascinating premise that was used to varying degrees of success over its surprisingly fruitful continuation. Here, Feig and screenwriter Rob Yescombe have created their own historical lore, stating that The California grand lottery started during the Great Depression of 2026. The New Government was desperate for money, and so was the public. A simple plan was devised, “kill the winner before sundown and legally take their jackpot.” The only rule? No guns.
Some people call it dystopian. But those people are no fun.
After an opening sequence – which includes cameo spots from Seann William Scott and Dolly De Leon – that stresses how serious people take the lottery and the enticement of killing for cash with no repercussions, we meet the next unintended lottery winner, Katie Kim (Awkwafina). A child actor who has returned to Los Angeles to hopefully reignite her career, she unwillingly stumbles upon the winning ticket and activates its whereabouts before she even has a chance to learn of California’s killer rule.
Because Katie is entirely unaware of what’s taking place – as she comments, she was looking after her dying mother watching “movies and emotionally neutral baking shows” – Jackpot! has quite an intriguing set-up in letting the movie play out through her confusion. Sadly, Yescombe’s script exposition-dumps as to catch Katie up to speed, so by the time she’s joined by the hulking Noel (the hulking John Cena), she’s less hazy on proceedings.
As for who Noel is exactly? Well, he’s a bodyguard of sorts. An amateur lottery protection agent, if you will, who, for 10% of the eventual winnings, will keep Katie safe until sundown. She wants no part of it, but walking away and simply abdicating the money isn’t really as neutral a solution as she thinks, so she remains tethered to Noel – and in an amusing action set-piece within a yoga studio, she literally is – for the duration of the day.
Like much of Feig’s catalogue, Jackpot! looks to survive off the playfulness of its ensemble, and though Cena and Awkwafina have individually had much stronger material to bounce off in the past, they make the most of Yescombe’s not entirely formed premise. Her chaotic energy and his surprising sweetness transcend the material. This similarly extends to such side players as Ayden Mayeri, who comes close to stealing every scene she’s in as Shadi, Katie’s deceptive Airbnb host, who’s all for supporting her girlie until it comes to literally maiming her. She, too, is a wannabe actress, and it speaks to Feig’s strength as a comedic helmer when Mayeri is left to sprout throwaway lines that she lands with bite and vapidity; “I’m great at improv, I just need time to prepare.”
Whatever momentum it feels like Jackpot! is maintaining sadly comes undone in the film’s final stretch. Already starting to feel as if it’s overstaying its welcome, even at 100 minutes, Jackpot! aims for something more poignant in its climax. The desperation surrounding the economical nature of the film’s setting, or even the attention-seeking mentality of many of its characters, should have stayed as something of a throughline, but there seems to be an aversion to committing to a certain meanness. Even Simu Liu‘s appearance at the tail-end as the fantastically named Louis Lewis, who, unsurprisingly, reveals himself as something of a villain, is clouded by a saccharine temperament.
A movie that’s better than it should be given Feig’s presence, but also not as great as to be expected from a director such as he, Jackpot! is a mildly amusing affair that starts out much stronger than it ends. The world built here opens itself up to much promise, but it all unfortunately settles in for the type of undemanding genre service we have come to expect from a streaming title.
TWO AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Jackpot! is streaming on Prime Video from August 15th, 2024.
