One thing that’s become clear in recent years is that Hollywood is running out of ideas. No longer satisfied to remake successful classics or continue to build on long-existing franchises like the MCU, studios are now patch-working together past stories and concepts, creating something akin to building Frankenstein’s monster onscreen. This is the problem with Jackpot!, a movie that is sort of The Purge, sort of The Hunt and sort of Self Reliance, Jake Johnson’s significantly better version of an everyman-on-the-run-for-money tale. Throw in elements of Most Dangerous Game and Squid Games and, well, here we are.
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JACKPOT! ★ (1/4 stars) |
Jackpot!, directed by skilled, passionate filmmaker Paul Feig, who never got his due for Ghostbusters, is a tedious amalgam of these things you’ve already seen. Set in Los Angeles in 2030, it follows a wannabe actress named Katie (Awkwafina) who inadvertently becomes the winner of the California lottery. The catch? The lottery winnings are only hers if she can stay alive until sundown, with drones revealing her location to furious, violent mobs who want to claim the prize money for themselves (the only rule: no guns). These killers include almost everyone around her, from the blonde actresses at an audition to a class of karate students to her ditzy Airbnb roommate to construction workers down the street. Luckily, an amateur lottery protection agent (John Cena) shows up out of nowhere to help her.
The premise is entertaining enough (although it apes so much of Self Reliance that Johnson could have a legal claim). It also sets Awkwafina up for some chaotic fight sequences, which become the basis of most of the movie’s scenes. Simu Liu appears as another lottery protection agent with devious motives, offering a foil for Cena, who amiably quips his way through the story. Screenwriter Rob Yescombe attempts some kind of emotional gravitas between Katie and her protector, including a requisite backstory that is totally irrelevant to the plot, but we just don’t care about these people enough for it to matter. You can only watch Katie fend off money-hungry Angelenos for so long before it becomes exhausting. How many times will she escape people’s makeshift weapons? How many chase sequences can we sit through? Why do the same Angelenos show up in every scene even though it’s a city of millions? Is this movie over yet?
There is an audience who will watch Jackpot! on streaming and think it’s okay. Awkwafina is a completely likable actress and she’s game for the stunts and ridiculous premise. Cena has proved himself to be a decent actor, even if he often plays the same role. Feig knows how to set up a fun fight scene that teeters between silly and brutal. But despite the cast and the director’s best efforts, this is a movie that so desperately wants to be edgy that it somehow becomes completely dull. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster with no soul or energy, which is what happens when you slap some glue between existing ideas and assume no one will notice. This is one Jackpot! with no winner.
