As America heads toward an increasingly tumultuous and unpredictable future, it comes as no surprise that there are filmmakers who are champing at the bit to deliver their own speculative visions of dystopian nightmares. Consider the Purge franchise, which began as a modestly high-concept horror lark before expanding into full-blown commentaries on the hellish Trump administration and the unalloyed horror of what would happen should the country suddenly become beyond saving. Admirable stuff, but the problem with The Purge was never the potency of its message, but rather the considerable gulf between its riveting premise and its shockingly haphazard execution, delivering dud after idiotic dud in a largely disappointing series. Shifting to the opposite end of the genre spectrum, director Paul Feig emerges with his own take on totalitarian misfortune with Jackpot!, an action comedy that posits a world where the U.S. has fallen into such economic ruin that the population is now controlled by a Grand Lottery, offering one lucky citizen untold fortunes should they happen to be selected. Trouble is, that announced winner immediately becomes public enemy number one, allowing anyone to freely kill them and claim the prize for their own. It’s a concept with incredible potential, folding the aforementioned Purge into Walter Hill’s The Warriors, but the finished product leaves much to be desired, with Feig frequently torpedoing Jackpot!’s momentum in order to engage in copious amounts of leaden improvisational comedy between stars Awkwafina and John Cena, favoring shrillness and profanity over any actual wit. History repeats itself once again.
An opening text crawl informs us that in the year 2030, the Grand Lottery was inaugurated, enabling the population to participate in the chance to win upwards of billions of dollars (entry is done via a digital keycard with a thumbprint scan). Should a lucky winner be chosen, they must then survive for one day while the rest of the populace is permitted to hunt and kill them, allowing others the opportunity to reap the reward for themselves. The only hard rule: no firearms or bullets are permitted. This is all explored in an extended prologue wherein the current hapless lottery selectee runs, jumps, and fights his way through all of Los Angeles to maintain his prize, ultimately meeting his demise when he puts his trust in an unassuming grandmother, who then emerges as the victor. Questions arise: why can only one person kill the lottery winner? Wouldn’t a grander free-for-all be a more effective and compelling premise? There’s also mention of staying in the city limits: how often are these lotteries held, how many run concurrently in the state? Then again, the film aspires to be a romp, so it may be best to ignore such quibbles, nagging as they may be.
Eventually, we meet protagonist Katie (Awkwafina), an aspiring actress who has recently moved to the City of Angels to better her career. Gypped into a crummy Airbnb by hostess Shadi (a painfully unfunny Ayden Mayeri), Katie hits more bad luck when she gets scammed at an audition, but not before she inadvertently enrolls in the next lottery, discovering a spare keycard in her hostess’s loaned outfit (you see, Katie’s clothes get covered in fecal matter from faulty sewage pipes shortly after her arrival). Sure enough, Katie is announced as the latest winner, to the tune of $3.6 billion, and soon all of Los Angeles is honing in on her location, determined to put an end to her misery once and for all. Coming to her rescue is Noel (John Cena), an ex-mercenary turned freelance “jackpot protector,” who offers his services to defend Katie’s life until sundown (for 10% of the winnings, natch). With no other options, Katie hires Noel as her bodyguard, and the two fight for their lives through hordes of “fans” so as to secure their grand prize.
The screenplay is credited to Rob Yescombe, whose resume primarily revolves around writing video games. This background makes sense, as Jackpot! is structured exactly like a video game, finding Katie and Noel as they travel from location to location, fending off waves of NPCs, and then venturing on to the next location, rinse and repeat. Featured locales include a karate dojo, a yoga studio, Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum in Hollywood, and then there’s even an inordinate amount of time spent in Machine Gun Kelly’s panic room. Of course, it’s difficult to really gauge how much of Yescombe’s original writing has been preserved, as Feig has permitted his actors to improvise up a storm, obliterating scene after scene with rapid-fire riffing that abrades the funny bone and induces tedium. The end credits even highlight a reel of alternate jokes that didn’t make it into the final cut, suggesting that Jackpot! was created in the edit rather than on the strength of its script. For her part, Awkwafina is an established comedian, but she’s in bad form here, refusing to let a moment of silence go by as she fires off one lame joke after another, typically laden with profanity and ill-advised pop culture references. Cena is guilty of this too, but he feels more at home in outright goofball mode, especially when his services are tendered as a wrecking ball against any poor soul foolish enough to stand up to his hulking frame. Were Jackpot! a silent film, it’d probably be a gas.
But weak comedy is only half of the film’s issues; poor action is the other. Feig has no real knack for shooting fight sequences, furiously cutting around the action rather than letting it breathe. A car chase through an industrial courtyard is so inept and cheaply staged that it comes across less like an exciting set piece and more like a second-rate Universal Studios stunt show. There’s a troubling start-and-stop aspect to the action as well: given the premise, Jackpot! should be a non-stop kinetic thrill ride, but the action only arises intermittingly, finding Feig much more at home shooting actors standing and talking in rooms where they engage in, you guessed it, more riffing. There’s no sense of fatigue to Katie and Noel’s journey either, bouncing from location to location without breaking much of a sweat, eventually crossing paths with Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), CEO of a state-of-the-art security team and eventual Final Boss on Katie’s quest. Given the talent involved, Jackpot! should have lived up to its title. Instead, it’s a limp excuse to showcase cut-rate action and an abundance of DOA jokes and unfunny characters. So, again, when the film ultimately ends with the cast and crew busting up at an onslaught of outtakes on set, one can’t help but think how nice it would’ve been had they remembered to let the audience in on the fun.
DIRECTOR: Paul Feig; CAST: John Cena, Awkwafina, Simu Liu, Ayden Mayeri; DISTRIBUTOR: Amazon MGM Studios; STREAMING: August 15; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 44 min.
