The year is 2030. We are in Los Angeles, where a new lottery game is wrecking havoc. It is The California Grand Lottery that was spearheaded as an afterthought to the supposed Great Depression, which took place in 2026. The point is that if you end up being the lucky one with the winning ticket, then you have to survive till sunset, as anyone around you can track the location and claim it. But no guns are allowed. Jackpot runs ahead with this silly, Squid Game-ish, video game concept of a premise, with Awkwafina as the unfortunate lead with a billion dollar on her head. (Also read: Paul Feig exclusive interview: ‘I don’t think I would have done Jackpot had it been more cynical about humanity’)
The premise
Director Paul Feig struck gold with his 2011 feature Bridesmaids, that had a gang of girlfriends coming to terms with their own realities. That sense of reality is entirely missing in Jackpot, which prioritizes on action-comedy over character development for the longest time. When we meet Awkwafina’s Katie Kim for the first time, she is an aspiring actor who gets pickpocketed in broad daylight. She does not seem to know anything about the lottery itself, and when she does end up being the lucky winner during a horrible audition, all hell breaks loose.
But the catch is that Katie Kim does not even want to be rich? So Katie does not want to be rich and famous without having to do much, but is also not sure that she wants to work (as an actor). So what does she want? Even she does not know.
In the meantime, she meets a freelance bodyguard named Noel (John Cena) on the run, who arrives just in time before Katie is knocked out. The deal is that he does not want to kill her, but will only save her if there is a 10 percent commission. She reluctantly agrees, still having no clue as to what is going on. Cue for elaborate action gags, which fails to add any laughs. There is also Simu Liu who plays a shady figure head of the Lottery Protection Agency. He wants a piece of the cake himself. Even Machine Gun Kelly and Dolly de Leon appear in cameo roles, failing to add any sense of control to the frantic and needlessly exaggerated premise.
Final thoughts
As much as Awkwafina tries to save the day with her physical comedy and splendid action sequences, Jackpot! is a wreckage in its own game. It does not know what it wants to say about the future, what to make of the issue of the peculiar case of capitalism at display, or how it leads to instability and fear. The near future looks bleak in Jackpot! but when the film wants to laugh at the expense of that despair, what else are you going to reason with?
Good humour does not counter the ever-persistent need of survival. But there is not even good humour here in the film’s favour. The makers of Jackpot! seem to be blind to these questions, and in turn, wants the audience to invest in the fun ride, and root for the two to survive. Jackpot! is not the winner it so desperately wants to be, and is a waste of potential displayed by the dependable Awkwafina.
Jackpot! is available to stream in Prime Video.
