Jackpot! review: John Cena’s new killer Lotto comedy is not a winner - Karl Puschmann

John Cena and Awkwafina star in the Paul Feig-directed action-comedy Jackpot!

Jackpot! has a great premise and big stars but ends up a dud.

The new action-comedy Jackpot! has all the right numbers to be a winner. It’s got a killer premise, a successful director and two marquee stars in the lead roles. But closer inspection reveals that these winning numbers have all aligned on last week’s ticket leaving you with a worthless dud.

The movie, which is streaming now on Prime Video, squanders its immediately gripping premise. It feels like it cherry-picked ideas from Arnie’s action-classic The Running Man, popular YA dystopian series The Hunger Games and Jackie Chan’s action-comedy franchise Rush Hour.

Set six years in the future, when the cost of living is somehow even worse and damn near everybody is broke, the rules of the lottery are changed to give people one last shot to win big.

Now, if you win the big prize you don’t kick back and wait for a hefty deposit into your bank account. Instead, you start running for your life.

This is because every person with a losing ticket is now trying to kill you. They have until sundown to legally take you out. There are arbitrary conditions - the two biggies being no guns, no bullets - but mostly it’s a free-for-all, murder spree.

If you’re murdered, the killer gets your winnings. If you manage to survive until the end of the day, then congrats, billions of dollars are now yours.

An action comedy with bankable stars and a successful director, does Jackpot! hit the right notes?

Comedy actress Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians) stars as Katie Kim, the lucky lotto winner that everybody is trying to kill, including her new flatmate, a big purple fluffy street mascot and rapper-turned-pop punk musician Machine Gun Kelly.

The only person actively trying to not murder her is John Cena’s freelance lottery protection agent Noel. He’s part of a satellite industry that takes a small fee for keeping jackpot winners alive. While the industry has attracted sharks, Noel, inspired by the 90s cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has vowed to only do good. The small percentage he takes he gives to the families of former colleagues who died trying to protect past winners.

The movie attempts to thread the needle between high-octane action, zippy one-liners and a buddy-cop sincerity as Katie learns to conquer her trust issues and believe in people again, starting with her new bodyguard Noel.

There’s loads of action in the movie, but it isn’t memorable, funny or adrenaline-spiking, even with all the screaming, explosions, and groins being kicked or punched. All of the action sequences are accompanied by a barrage of zings that mostly bounce ineffectively off the screen.

Both Awkwafina and Cena do land the odd gag here and there, but Jackpot!’s biggest miss is that there isn’t one centrepiece scene that leaves you in stitches with tears rolling down your face. In a comedy keenly aware of and playing up its silliness that crucial scene is sorely, sorely missed. Jackpot! also doesn’t hit you with any memorable or repeatable quotes. The comedy and action are interchangeably forgettable.

Though it's billed as a funny, fast-paced action film Jackpot! !’s premise does have the potential for social commentary.

This is a common failing of director Paul Feig (Ghostbusters, Spy, Bridesmaids), who, as a director, has ridden the success of Bridesmaids far harder than any of its stars. His reliance on his actors to generate the lols by rolling the camera and letting them improv their way through a scene does produce funny moments, sure, but rarely delivers a hilarious comedic centrepiece for his films - with the exclusion of the aforementioned Bridesmaids. But these devastatingly funny scenes need as much planning, calculating and precision as any major action setpiece. Winging it just ain’t gonna cut it.

On the action front, he’s competent, if unimaginative. The lasting memory of the action scenes in Jackpot! is of Awkwafina shouting.

Jackpot!’s premise did have the potential for social commentary - what to make of a society that condones murder and where kindly old grandmothers will kill you for your money with a moment’s notice? This holds no interest for Feig. Instead, he portrays the public as nothing more than mindless zombies shuffling relentlessly after our heroes.

He keeps his focus squarely on the relationship between Katie and Noel, which isn’t all that compelling. Awkwafina and Cena are both talented comedic actors but here they fail to spark together. They both deliver solid performances but, for whatever reason, that crucial chemistry fails to alchemise between them.

Jackpot! may not be the big winner its talent would suggest, but it’s not a complete loss. It’s light and silly viewing with serviceable action and comedy. It’s the movie equivalent of winning a few bucks in Lotto’s Division 7. A momentary thrill that leaves you disappointed it wasn’t more before it’s forgotten about, forever.

Jackpot! is streaming now on Prime Video.

Karl Puschmann is an entertainment columnist for the Herald. His fascination lies in finding out what drives and inspires creative people.