Jackpot movie review: Crass John Cena comedy doesn’t deliver on its premise, abandons Awkwafina in pit of mediocrity

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John Cena and Awkwafina in Jackpot!

Awkwafina stars as Katie, a former child actress looking to make a comeback after being out of action for several years. Caring for her dying mother in Michigan also left her in the dark about the utter lunacy going on in LA. When she mistakenly throws her hat in the ring for the lottery — these things are controlled by futuristic-looking cards — she doesn’t know that she’ll soon by running for her life from hordes of greedy Angelenos. That’s where Cena comes in, literally. He plays a guy named Noel, an ex-mercenary of some kind who, sensing a business opportunity, has fashioned himself into a Terminator-type bodyguard who specialises in protecting lottery winners from the mob.

For just a 10% cut of Katie’s $3.6 billion winnings, he’ll ensure that she makes it to the end of the day. Despite his hardcore background, however, Noel is yet another in the increasingly long line of man-children that Cena has so competently been playing in recent years. It’s so obvious by now that he’s infinitely more talented than that inescapable ‘former wrestler’ tag makes him out to be, but it’s slightly disheartening to see him being boxed in like this. Cena is overcommitted as usual in Jackpot!, but let’s be honest, his one-day appearance at the Ambani wedding was more memorable than anything in this movie.

Jackpot! is an unrelenting and exhausting. It essentially plays out like an extended chase, with nameless, faceless enemies flocking towards Katie and Noel as they go from one LA location to the next. We’re told that her exact whereabouts are being regularly updated for the public’s convenience, almost as if the system wants her to be lynched. Feig doesn’t bother examining the obvious ethical questions that a premise like this raises, and almost appears to brush them off in the film’s opening moments. “Some people call (this world) dystopian. But those people are no fun,” the title card at the start of the movie reads.

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John Cena and Awkwafina in Jackpot!

To be clear, there was a choice there. Feig could’ve just as easily taken a more satirical perspective, without holding the ‘humour’ hostage. But because of a misplaced desire to appear edgy, he chose to take a more flippant attitude. The only discernible satire, if any at all, is aimed at the residents of Los Angeles, which is not only a stunningly narrow-minded way to look at the problems plaguing our dog-eat-dog world, but also actively self-indulgent. Prime Video will proudly tell anybody who’s listening that Jackpot! is being released in over 200 countries; perhaps somebody should’ve told Feig that the movie isn’t meant for the enjoyment of people in Hollywood.

In its third act, the film’s otherwise breakneck pace comes to a grinding halt. That this happens the second Simu Liu shows up is probably only a coincidence. But is it? The Shang-Chi star plays a villainous businessman who operates a more organised security firm as compared to the one-man show that Cena is running, and offers to provide Katie heavier security as she reaches the home stretch of her survival mission. There’s exactly one scene where any of these people come across as real human beings; the rest of the movie, however, is loud, crass, and consistently dissatisfying. None of this would be a problem had it been even slightly funny.

Jackpot!
Director – Paul Feig
Cast – Awkwafina, John Cena, Simu Liu, Ayden Mayeri
Rating – 2/5