The ceiling is pretty low in the action comedy genre — a genre whose biggest hits tend to be peppering lame shootouts with jokes from former “Saturday Night Live” stars. With Prime Video’s “Jackpot!”, director Paul Feig changes the formula, crafting dense stunts where the action itself makes you laugh. That could mean anything from Awkwafina hiding among wax figures in a cheap Hollywood museum to former wrestler John Cena facing off against a room of black belts with a “Crazy Rich Asians” intruder strapped to his back.
Why are people trying to kill Awkwafina? Jackpot! asks the audience to believe a clever but often illogical premise about a radical change in California’s lottery rules. In the year 2030, a winning ticket comes with a price: the money is yours alone if you can survive until sundown. In the meantime, the winners must navigate an impromptu Hunger Games on the streets of Los Angeles, where their winnings are rewards for whoever is cunning enough to kill them.
I don't want to offend Rob Yescombe (who was named as one of the diverseLast year, Feige dreamed up a great movie, but that idea is as far as he gets in a poor script, which is supported by whatever improvisation the cast can muster and surprisingly funny fight scenes. Feige shows how the state’s “win, lose, or die” lottery works from the start, with the day’s winner (Seann William Scott) trying to outsmart a greedy crowd. The rules are so clear-cut that it’s hard to believe that Awkwafina doesn’t know what’s going on when her number is drawn.
The comedian plays Katie Kim, a former child actress who doesn't want to get back into acting, but has no choice after her tax-evading father runs off with all her earnings. During her first audition (which is both humiliating and hilarious), she discovers the winning ticket in her pocket, accidentally activates it with her thumb, and the next thing she knows, she's an instant celebrity: the most valuable person in Los Angeles.
Luckily for her, a freelance bodyguard named Noel (Senna) bursts through the wall like a muscle man and starts bashing heads. He’s the near-future equivalent of an ambulance-chasing lawyer—and a welcome ally in helping Katie avoid her “fans” (as the film calls them). It turns out that not everyone wants to kill her. But like any good talent agent, this guy expects a 10% commission.
There are traces of a more pointed Hollywood satire running through Jackpot! , as if Yescombe or Feig or someone else wanted to poke fun at America’s obsession with wealth and fame. Oddly enough, Katie doesn’t want to. She didn’t buy the ticket, but she found it in a borrowed pair of shiny gold sweatpants. Even stranger, the film seems to have come up with the word “weird” at the exact moment that Tim Walz, the vice presidential candidate, used “weird” as an insult of the day, adding an unexpected resonance to some of the film’s weaker satire.
“Jackpot!” requires a more sophisticated form of physical comedy than Awkwafina has ever been asked to do before, and while her character is supposed to look clumsy and inept, it takes a lot of skill to pull off the routine choreographed by James Young. Given his WWE background, John Cena is more accustomed to making fake fighting look entertaining, but he once again reminds us of his athletic sense of humor (as he did earlier this year in scene-stealing “Ricky Stanicky”).
Thirteen years ago, Feige had a big hit with the Judd Apatow-produced comedy Bridesmaids, but he’s since fallen out of favor, trying to work his way into other genres (most recently The School for Good and Evil, which flopped in its age bracket). Jackpot! fits neatly between The Heat and the 2016 Ghostbusters remake, with the stylish director finding himself in his comfort zone, relying on some of the tricks that worked so well in Bridesmaids without the empathy that that film’s brilliant script has.
The most obvious of these strategies comes in the casting, which is entrusted to secret weapon Allison Jones, who has been finding funny characters for him and Apatow since his days on Freaks & Geeks. (Jones was the one who brought Seth Rogen and Melissa McCarthy into the mix.) Here, she introduces a half-dozen diverse and funny comedians to the ensemble, from Katie’s insensitive/murderous Airbnb host (Aidan Mayeri) to the shady leader of the lottery protection agency (Simu Liu), who’s looking to steal Noel’s paycheck for himself. She even recruits Machine Gun Kelly, who proves a good sport at playing a sarcastic, panic-room-ready version of himself.
Jackpot!’s script is full of twists and turns, few of which would be surprising, so why give them away here? At the same time, it puts the onus on Awkwafina and company to improve their scenes. Jackpot! ends up being one of those movies where you can tell the actors tried dozens of jokes and the editor picked the best ones, though the unfunny ending credits suggest that there were often funnier options. In a way, it’s fitting that Katie’s survival hinges on her ability to think on her feet, considering how much the film also relies on improvisation. It’s this very skill that would make Awkwafina a millionaire.
