David Farnor | On 16, Aug 2024

Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Awkwafina, John Cena, Simu Liu
Certificate: 15

Ever since 2001’s Series 7: The Contenders, the idea of people being pitted against each other for money has been familiar and darkly plausible. Jackpot!, Amazon’s new action comedy, escalates the idea to enjoyably unsubtle extremes.

The film jumps forward to 2030 Los Angeles, when California has introduced a state Grand Lottery. Devised in response to the Great Depression of 2026, the brutal scheme crowns a lucky winner with millions of dollars – but only if they can stay alive until the sundown on jackpot day. If anyone else kills them? They get to take the prize money for themselves.

Awkwafina stars as Katie Kim, a former child actor who some people still remember from being in a spaghetti hoops advert. But after years out of the game, she’s only just moving back to LA – with barely enough to rent out a rip-off room on Airbnb. So when she accidentally winds up with a golden lottery ticket, she not only doesn’t know what she’s won, but also has no idea that everyone else in the state is about to start coming after her. Enter Noel (John Cena), a freelancer lottery protection agent, who promises to keep her alive in exchange for a cut of the winnings. He wears a three-piece suit, drives a bulletproof car and really doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.

The result is a very daft sprint to a dark finish line, and Rob Yescombe’s script doesn’t shy away from frank juxtapositions of the inequality in this dystopian society. The TV news blares headlines about poverty before pausing to declare new billionaires, while nice women on public transport turn homicidal at the drop of a hat. But the film’s secret is that it keeps the pace up so that the horrible premise only has to time to linger in the back of your mind and pop up occasionally to punctuate the manic hijinks.

The cast are all having a ball, from Ayden Mayeri and Donald Elise Watkins as Katie’s self-obsessed Airbnb hosts to Sean William Scott in an inspired opening cameo and a knowing appearance by Machine Gun Kelly. That’s not to mention a scene-stealing Simu Liu, who clearly relishes the opportunity to be smarmy and petty as a rival lottery protection agent. But it’s Awkwafina and John Cena who make the impossibly jarring mix of elements work. She’s a hyper ball of energy who can throw out one-liners at speed, while he’s a deceptively vulnerable and sweet screen presence with enough heart to add an air of put-upon desperation to his physical and verbal comic timing – if Cena needed to cement his potential as the next Channing Tatum, Jackpot! does it.

Paul Feig, who give us The Heat as well as Bridesmaids, has a knack for comedy pairings, and Cena and Awkwafina are a strong one, each able to pull off convincing stunts while having a chemistry that feels warm and sincere. Whether it’s Katie having a panic attack in a panic room, or Noel debating LaCroix flavours while throwing brutal punches, Feig gets the best out of them both without losing momentum. “Some people call it dystopian,” the opening credits warn us. “But those people are no fun.” Jackpot! is a delightfully silly dystopian ride – and, thanks to a cast at full throttle, it genuinely is fun.

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