This action comedy bets and loses.
11 years ago, we got “The Purge,” which had the one day of the year when all crime, including murder, was legal. And you have until dawn to survive.
Earlier this year, we had “Civil War,” which really showed how America has lost its way and resorted to violence in the future.
And now, we have “Jackpot,” which also takes place in the near future and has a game that requires people to murder someone by a certain time of the day.
The year is 2030, and ever since the Great Depression of 2026, Los Angeles has found a new way of solving your financial problems. Whoever wins the lottery is marked for death. Two rules: you can’t use guns with bullets, and the target has until sundown to survive.
The price of the jackpot has boosted to $3.6 billion, and that means the stakes are higher.
Something like this could work, but “Jackpot” is so mean-spirited, hostile, and unfunny, that it’s one of the year’s worst movies. And I’m being too kind.
Awkwafina stars Katie, a struggling actress, who hasn’t heard about this jackpot murder fest, because she doesn’t watch the news with her deceased mother. “It’s too depressing,” she says. They just watch movies and shows. I guess she didn’t see “Being There,” which starred Peter Sellars as a man who learned things through television. So, these two have nothing in common.
She also moves in with the actress Shadi (Ayden Mayeri) and her DJ friend DJ Donald (Donald Elise Watkins from “Emergency”), and their apartment is so sh*tty, that the sewage from upstairs leaks through their ceiling, and gets all over Katie’s clothes. She’s forced to wear one of Shadi’s clothes for an audition, and she accidentally triggers Shadi’s jackpot card, which enters her in the game and makes her the winner. That means people want to kill her for her money, and that’s when she meets Noel (John Cena), a former soldier, who becomes her bodyguard. For a 10% fee of course.
Why is it that lately in comedies that take place in the future, people have to be vulgar for laughs? Why is it difficult to find any redeeming qualities in them? And why do I have to deal with the behaviors. I can’t answer the first two questions, but I am a film critic, and I have to debate on them.
The main heroine Katie would have a lot in common with the Bryce Dallas Howard character in “Argylle,” when they try to get out of danger, and want nothing more to do with it. Isn’t this getting old and exhausting? And Cena was in both movies. I think his character should be placed in a better movie, because he does have his vulnerabilities, and has better intentions than anyone else here.
The supporting character Shadi seems to exist in another universe where people would think she’s funny, when in this universe she hates her mother calling her, almost as much as Roger Ebert hated “North,” and she even has to turn against her new roommate for the money. And why do we always need a wolf in sheep’s clothing in this particular genre? Here in the form of Noel’s former partner Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), who runs a protection agency, and wants to murder Katie.
It used to be suggested by Ebert that it takes brilliant talents to make a bad movie. Cena and Awkwafina are both appealing actors (see Cena in “The Suicide Squad” and “Ferdinand,” and see Awkwafina in “Crazy Rich Asians” and “The Farewell”), and director Paul Feig had made one brilliant comedy after another (with “Bridesmaids,” “The Heat,” and “A Simple Favor” being my favorites from him). But “Jackpot” loses in the end. I’ll be sticking to slot machines. Thank you.
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video Tomorrow