Josh Reviews Jackpot!

Jackpot! is set in the year 2030; the financially-desperate state of California has created the “Grand Lotto” in which, any time someone wins, anyone else with a losing ticket has until sundown to kill the lottery winner and claim their winnings.  The only rules are that the winner can’t leave the state (or else they forfeit their winnings) and the losers can’t use guns; all other weapons are allowed.  Katie Kim (Awkwafina) was a child actor, but after her dad left and took all her money, and her mom got sick, she left the business.  After her mom passed away, she decided to give acting another try, but a series of unfortunate events seems to sink her second try at a career before it even gets going.  Then she finds a winning lottery ticket in a set of clothes she borrowed, and suddenly she finds herself on the run for her life.  Her only ally is Noel (John Cena), who’s starting up a business protecting lottery winners until the end of the day.  The two of them quickly find themselves on the run against… well, pretty much everyone.

I’ve been a huge Paul Feig fan ever since watching the extraordinary Freaks and Geeks (which Mr. Feig created and ran along with Judd Apatow).  Bridesmaids is his masterpiece; I’ve also enjoyed his films The Heat, Spy, A Simple Favor, and I’m a defender of his Ghostbusters reboot.  Jackpot! feels like it’s gone under the radar since it’s release a few weeks ago on Prime Video (click here to watch it now!), but a new Paul Feig film is always of interest to me.

So I’m pre-disposed to like Paul Feig, and I like Awkwafina (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Raya and the Last Dragon), but I thought the first twenty or so minutes of Jackpot! were painfully unfunny, and I almost bailed.  I think they made a mistake with the tone in those opening scenes; it’s way too broad.  I think it would have made more sense to start off in a more realistic, grounded world, so when Katie wins the lottery and everyone around her goes nuts, it’d have had more of an impact.  Maybe I’d have felt different had I found those early scenes funny, but the jokes didn’t land for me.  Not a single one.  I was rolling my eyes and looking at the clock.

But once John Cena (Trainwreck, Peacemaker) enters the picture as Noel and he and Awkwafina team up, the film comes to life.  Awkwafina and Mr. Cena have a lovely chemistry together.  Both are very funny performers, and it’s fun to watch the two of them go at one another.

We also get a lot of fun, clever action bits.  I’ve read Mr. Feig describe his desire to make a Jackie Chan style action-comedy, and one can clearly see that in the fight sequences.  There’s nothing earth-shatteringly original in the action, but we get lots and lots of fun little beats in which Katie and Noel jump and run and try to avoid getting sliced, diced, or otherwise maimed by the many people constantly coming after them.

I was delighted to see Awkwafina reunite with Shang-Chi himself, Simu Liu, who plays the wealthy, smooth-talking Louis Lewis (funny name), the head of the Lewis Protection Agency.  I was also pleased to see Leslie David Baker (Stanley from The Office) as a good-hearted security guard, and Becky Ann Baker (who of course played Jean Weir on Mr. Feig’s Freaks and Geeks) as the significantly-less good-hearted “sweet Irene”.  It’s nice to see Seann William Scott (American Pie) in the opening sequence.  Ayden Mayeri and Donald Elise Watkins make a good pair as Shadi, Katie’s scumbag Air BnB owner, and her DJ boyfriend who is also named DJ.  (Mr. Watkins’ high-pitched scream is repeatedly used for strong comedic effect in the film.)

I wish there was more to this film.  I wish it was funnier; I wish I cared more about the characters.  From the premise — Americans willing to murder in order to get rich quick — I’d thought there’d be more social commentary woven into the film.  Unfortunately, the film feels to me like it’s full of narrative missed opportunities.  We learn that the contest ends at sundown — rather than a specific time, like 8 pm or midnight — so it seems weird to me that Mr. Feig doesn’t use the visual of the setting sun as a way to establish the ticking clock.  (The finale takes place indoors, inside an abandoned theater; we never see the sun setting.)  Other examples: Why doesn’t the film ever show Shadi’s being upset that Katie found HER winning lottery ticket in the pants she borrowed?  That feels like a big deal to me!!  I can’t believe it never comes up.  Also, it seems like a huge coincidence that Noel just happened to be right by Katie when she found the winning ticket.  I wish the film had found a reason for that to be the case more than just random good luck.  Noel’s whole character arc feels shortchanged to me.  I’d assumed that Katie was the first lottery winner Noel had tried to protect, but then later when Katie asks him if he’s saved other people, he gives a vague answer, saying “a few”.  Wouldn’t it have been more dramatic had Noel never actually saved a lottery winner before?  That also feels like it’d have given him more motivation to succeed — wanting to make a name for himself, wanting to survive in this new venture as an underdog challenging the Lewis Protection Agency — more than just being a nice guy.  The film tries to make a big deal that Noel is disappointed that Katie won’t trust him — and this leads into a whole thing about her being unable to trust the people in his life — but it seems insane that Noel would be upset by this, because every single other person Katie encounters has immediately tried to brutally murder him.  It’s actually crazy to me that she DOES trust him.  There are too many moments like this in the film that feel “off” to me, like the plot doesn’t quite make sense, or that the characters’ emotions or motivations feel like they’re being quickly summarized rather than explored in depth.  It keeps the film at a “B” level for me.

I had fun watching Jackpot… Awkwafina and John Cena are a great on-screen pairing (as are Awkwafina and Simu Liu), and the action is fun.  I wish it felt like the film’s story and characters had a little more meat on their proverbial bones.

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