Jackpot! – An Action Comedy Misfire (Early Review)

Jackpot! is Paul Feig’s latest action comedy starring Awkwafina and John Cena. Set in the near future, a “Grand Lottery” has been established in which anybody is allowed to kill the winner before sundown to legally claim the multi-billion dollar jackpot for themselves. When Katie Kim (Awakafina) arrives to town. she mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket. After much hesitation and confusion, she reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (Cena) who must get her to sundown in exchange for a piece of the prize. The film has all the right ingredients: a great premise full of potential, a talented cast led by two likeable leads, and a solid director whose no stranger to action or comedy in Paul Feig. So, one can’t help but wonder where it all went so wrong.

For starters, Jackpot! may not be among the worst of the year or painfully unwatchable but it is still not good. While its premise could’ve been executed much better, it does at least provide some fun moments that elicit a few chuckles, though those moments were few and far between. Cena, as Noel, does a lot of the heavy lifting and keeps things at least moderately amusing whenever he’s on screen. The film picks up once he becomes more of an integral part of the story, delivering the only bits of comedy that work, thanks to his timing. Those seeing the likes of Sean William Scott and Dolly de Leon as part of the cast and hoping they get a substantial amount of screentime, might want to temper those expectations as both were wasted and relegated to what essentially were cameo roles. Meanwhile, Liu is given a considerably larger role than them, as Louis Lewis, but it even takes him some time to show up and even then, he fails to deliver that interesting of a performance.

Awkwafina is a talented actress who has delivered some terrific performances in the past, and while she’s far from bad here, she feels miscast as Katie. She just feels out of place, and it doesn’t help that her and Cena do not have the greatest chemistry to begin with. As an action comedy, the film pretty much fails on both accounts because it isn’t very funny, and the action isn’t very memorable or exciting. Most of the comedy falls completely flat and some of its one liners feel pretty random, while the action isn’t filmed well, never taking itself seriously for those sequences to have any sort of impact. But by far, the biggest complaint is its failure to approach its premise with any kind of complexity, instead relying on the simplest ideas. That being said, there are glimmers of some social commentary and world building, all that work is basically dropped as soon as they’re introduced, resulting in a surface level action comedy with a cool premise that refuses to explore its ideas.

In the end, Jackpot! is a major disappointment and there’s a reason why many probably haven’t even heard of it or seen much advertising for it, despite the plethora of talented people being involved with it both in front of and behind the camera. While the film may boast a great premise and John Cena keeps it watchable, it also has absolutely none of what made Paul Feig’s other comedies work so well in what was simply a shocking misfire from the writer and director. Why can’t he just reunite with Melissa McCarthy for something or simply pull the trigger and finally make a sequel to Spy.

still courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/