JACKPOT! (AMAZON PRIME) (2024)

SYNOPSIS: In the near future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been newly established in California - the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot. When Katie Kim (Awkwafina) moves to Los Angeles, she mistakenly finds herself with the winning ticket. Desperate to survive the hordes of jackpot hunters, she reluctantly joins forces with amateur lottery protection agent Noel Cassidy (John Cena) who will do everything in his power to get her to sundown in exchange for a piece of her prize. However, Noel must face off with his slick rival Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), who also seeks to collect Katie’s commission at all costs. 

MOVIE REVIEW:

It’s Los Angeles in the year 2030 and for some strange reason, the government decides to create a deadly lottery whereby the winner must survive till sundown to claim the top prize. This time the winner gets US$3.6 billion. And the winner happens to be former child actor, Katie Kim (Awkwafina).

Lucky for her, she has Noel Cassidy (John Cena), a freelance Lottery protection agent who offers his services for one-tenth of her prize money. Adding on to her woes is Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), the head of a professional protection agency and also Noel’s ex-rival. Will Katie survive the ordeal and claim the prize?

The ill-conceived Jackpot! is something like a funny version of The Purge but lacks even the basic competency of it. Somehow, every ordinary people of LA ends up as kung-fu fighting hooligans who wants Katie dead. They run like hordes of zombies, armed and desperate in endless scenes of destruction and mayhem.

There’s little to love or enjoy in this Paul Feig’s (Bridesmaids, The Heat) movie. Save for some funny banter between Katie and Noel, the narrative is filled mostly with prolonged, less than compelling action and chase sequences even though you have Cena’s absolutely insane muscles and charisma for eye candy.

Awkwafina is decent enough and her character is not terribly written. Katie Kim has a sad, sobbing backstory and at least has a substantial reason why audiences deserve to root for her success. Simu Liu returns once again as Awkwafina’s co-star after Shang-Chi. Liu however got the shorter end of the stick as he popped up onscreen again as a forgettable villain for the second time in 2024. Remember Jennifer Lopez’s Atlas?

There’s a somewhat hilarious scene with a cameoing Machine Gun Kelly and some zany confrontations with Katie’s Airbnb host (Ayden Mayeri) and her boyfriend, DJ (Donald Elise Watkins). Other than that, it’s hard to recall what exactly Jackpot! is all about.

Jackpot! is suppose to be some frenetic improvisational comedy. Yet along the way someone forgotten to rein in Feig especially his editor and the movie drags on for 30 minutes too long. More piss and shit than anything. Katie Kim will agree on that.

MOVIE RATING:

Review by Linus Tee