‘Jackpot!’ review: wacky action-comedy with odd couple Awkwafina and John Cena

NME

Though he’s best known for directing 2011’s Bridesmaids, a brilliant mix of female friendship and gross-out gags, Paul Feig has also displayed a real flair for action-comedy. Both 2013’s The Heat with Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock and 2015’s Spy with McCarthy and Jason Statham were crowd-pleasing hits that deftly blended thrills and spills with quips and slapstick. Compare them to a lesser McCarthy vehicle – 2021’s Thunder Force, for example – and Feig’s dab hand becomes apparent.

Scripted by former video games writer Rob Yescombe, Feig’s latest action-comedy has a clever premise. Set in a near future where financial hardship is even more rife than it is now, it revolves around a California grand lottery with a high-stakes twist: if you can kill the latest winner by sundown on the day of their jackpot, you get to claim their millions without any repercussions.

The film begins with former child star Katie Kim (Awkwafina) returning to LA in a bid to rebuild her dormant career. Her first audition doesn’t go well – she gets ripped off by a sexist grifter, very Hollywood – but her luck changes when she wins the grand lottery she’s never even heard of. Because Katie has been living off-grid for several years caring for her sick mother, she doesn’t understand why everyone suddenly wants to murder her.

So in steps Noel Cassidy (John Cena), a hulking bodyguard who has made it his business to protect lottery winners from the inevitable lynch mob. Katie is baffled by him to begin with, partly because he looks pretty scruffy for someone who’s supposedly been earning commission from very rich, very desperate people, but she reluctantly cuts a deal to keep herself alive.

Yescombe’s script doesn’t always hide its contrivances: the trust issues built into Katie’s backstory are an all too obvious device to justify her near-instant loyalty to Noel. When she receives an offer from a rival protection agency – one led by slick, gimlet-eyed Louis Lewis (Simu Liu, chewing the scenery amusingly) – she refuses to ditch him.

It’s also a shame that Jackpot! doesn’t push its satire further, especially given the relative edginess of its setup. There are some well observed moments where Grand Lottery “fans” root for Katie on social media, but this film has no interest in probing the gross amorality of a world where killing someone for their millions is deemed OK. It’s a straight up romp, not an exercise in social commentary.

And on this level, it’s a success. Awkwafina’s deadpan drollery dovetails neatly with Cena’s golden retriever energy and the climactic set-piece is genuinely exciting. There are also fun extended cameos from American Pie star Seann William Scott and Machine Gun Kelly, who gamely plays a very unserious fictionalised version of himself. Jackpot! might not quite live up to its title, but it’s definitely gratifying in the moment, a bit like winning £50 on a scratch card.

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