Paul Feig is a gambling man. With “Bridesmaids,” he was willing to bet that an all-woman cast could do raunchy, R-rated comedy just as good as the guys. That paid off handsomely. Then, he was willing to bet big on Melissa McCarthy, with two films, “The Heat” and “Spy,” which were both successes. It was the third McCarthy vehicle where his risk-taking finally got the best of him—2016’s “Ghostbusters” reboot. Since then, outside of 2018’s “A Simple Favor,” Feig has struggled to find a win. Unfortunately, though another patented Paul Feig risk, his latest film, “Jackpot,” is no winning ticket.
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“Jackpot” tells the story of a near future where California decides to up the stakes with its state lottery. The situation is this—if you win the state lottery, you have to survive 24 hours of being hunted by other Californians, and if they kill you before that time is up, they get your jackpot. The entire setup doesn’t really make a lick of sense, even when it’s explained in the film, but whatever, it’s an excuse to have John Cena (a bodyguard who wants to protect the lottery winner) and Awkwafina (the lottery winner) team up to survive. It’s comedic fight scene after comedic fight scene until, at a point in the third act, there is an attempt to have some heart before yet more comedic fights.
Let’s just put this out there right away— “Jackpot” is no “John Wick.” When we have dozens of people with knives, swords, baseball bats, and various other weapons chasing after our heroes for well over an hour straight, it starts to wear thin. The action in “Jackpot” just isn’t all that interesting. Feig and his stunt people aren’t really doing anything inventive. It’s the same beats over and over again. Awkwafina screams, runs, and trips over herself while John Cena kicks ass and saves her with a bit of a quip. It’s all just so formulaic. Also adding to the tedium is the comedy, where there are only momentary chuckles. In fact, for as many laughs as they’re trying to get, only about half of them land. All told, “Jackpot” is an action comedy that is light on laughs and heavy on repetitive droning fights.
“Jackpot” even fails as a social commentary. This film has political leanings that are similar to what you might find in “The Purge” franchise—the government is corrupt, the population is angry and willing to take it out on themselves, and California is a couple of years away from being a dystopia. The problem is that the film doesn’t really go deep enough to back up these social issues presented. Why did California decide to send its citizens after other citizens for money? Outside of some lazy title cards at the beginning, we’re never told. Obviously, that sort of deep discussion would really put a damper on the comedy aspects, so, as viewers, we’re just told to accept the thin premise and believe this is all a plausible situation. Ugh.
But what about the heart? Surely, there is something in “Jackpot” that makes you care for the characters, right? Well, there are obligatory exposition scenes where Cena and Awkwafina share their sob stories, but that doesn’t come until the beginning of the third act, and by then, you’ve mentally checked out. The action has beaten your brain into boredom; the jokes stopped landing thirty minutes ago, and you know where everything is leading. Frankly, it’s all just so dull.
Let’s take a minute to talk about the two main stars of the film, Cena and Awkwafina. Both are playing versions of themselves in the film. Cena is the “aw shucks” good guy with bulging muscles and self-deprecating humor. Awkwafina is loud, often obnoxious, and… well, just loud. She yells in nearly every line of her dialogue. Sadly, they’re just not given a lot of time to really do more than that. The problem is with the script, which (again) is heavy on the action and less interested in human moments. So, even though Cena and Awkwafina seemingly phone in their roles, you can’t really blame them. They had to learn a ton of fight choreography and most of the dialogue is delivered in the middle of a brawl.
It’s clear that Paul Feig saw the opportunity to expand his repertoire by dipping his toes in the action-comedy subgenre. Again, this is what Feig does. He loves to gamble. Unfortunately for him, he’s betting on a bland action film with forgettable comedic moments. Ultimately, the “Jackpot” is a bad wager. [D+]
“Jackpot” premieres on Prime Video on August 15.