Jackpot! isn’t quite the winning line it thinks it is.
While The Legend Of Zorro waits patiently for its turn to be chosen for Friday Night Movie Night, an upstart pretender stole its chance this week as we take in the Awkwafina/ John Cena comedy caper Jackpot!
It’s not a huge leap from the rock-’em-sock-’em playground politics of today’s America to the kind of dystopia that sees 2030s California embracing the kind of state-sponsored bloodbath that the Mango Mussolini himself would dream up after watching The Running Man after a twelve hour cheeseburger bender: California’s “Grand Lottery” offers one lucky winner an eye-watering fortune – provided they can survive until sundown. It’s the kind of misunderstood edgelord Darwinism that you could see Elon Musk advocating for while simultaneously demanding protection from.
Thus, Paul Feig’s Jackpot! blends action, satire, and his usual improv-heavy comedy approach. The result? A chaotic ride that’s undeniably fun but never quite as sharp as it could be. Awkwafina leads the charge as Katie Kim, a washed-up child star whose attempt at a Hollywood comeback goes off the rails when she accidentally wins a $3.6 billion jackpot. With a literal target on her back, her only shot at survival is Noel Cassidy (John Cena), a self-styled “protection agent” who’s happy to help—so long as there’s a payday involved. Standing in their way is Simu Liu’s Louis Lewis, a slick, corporate-branded security mogul and Noel’s former colleague, whose interest in Katie’s predicament is less about saving her and more about cashing in.
There’s an inherently brilliant concept at play here. The Grand Lottery is one of those dystopian ideas that lands with eerie plausibility, skewering America’s obsession with wealth, violence, and reality TV spectacle all at once. It’s The Running Man meets Game Night, a world where economic desperation fuels an ecosystem of contract killers, weaponised influencers, and social media carnage. But for all its promise, Jackpot! never fully commits to its own satire. Feig, as always, is more interested in the interplay between his cast than in delivering a pointed critique, and while that keeps the film breezy, it also means it never really bites.
Feig’s fondness for letting actors riff through takes results in some undeniably funny moments – Cena and Awkwafina have a fantastic odd-couple chemistry – but it also undermines the film’s world-building. In a sharper script, the Grand Lottery would feel like an inevitable evolution of the modern gig economy, but here, it’s mostly a backdrop for set pieces and punchlines. The improvisational looseness leads to pacing hiccups, where scenes linger just a little too long, and gags overtake any real sense of urgency. It’s also the probable source of the film’s relentless profanity, which becomes more of a comedic crutch than an organic element of the script. There’s a version of Jackpot! that hammers home its critique of how disposable human life has become in pursuit of entertainment and excess, but Feig isn’t really interested in making that movie.
What he does make is still a riot. The action is delightfully over-the-top, from shootouts in yoga studios to a wax museum brawl where the combatants seem just as concerned about their Instagram angles as their survival. Cena continues to cement himself as a comedic heavyweight, playing Noel as equal parts affable and lethal, while Simu Liu delivers one of the film’s best performances, weaponizing corporate smarm with chilling precision. Meanwhile, Ayden Mayeri and Donald Elise Watkins steal scenes as Airbnb hosts who treat their guest’s survival as more of a mild inconvenience than a moral dilemma. Machine Gun Kelly, clearly having the time of his life as an exaggerated parody of a pampered celebrity, proving once again that his self-aware comedic streak is one of his strongest assets.
For all its missed opportunities, Jackpot! remains a wildly entertaining ride. It’s too breezy to carry much satirical weight, but if you’re here for snappy banter, creative action, and John Cena gleefully wrecking everything in his path, you’re in good hands. Just don’t expect any profound social commentary – this lottery is strictly a game of laughs, not a referendum on society’s decline.
