A new action comedy with a preposterous central premise proves a winner in JACKPOT!. The buddy dynamic between stars Awkwafina and John Cena is off the charts, writes David Michael Brown.
While Paul Feig isn’t the first director you think of when considering a kick-ass action comedy, he has certainly dabbled in both aspects of the explosive gag-filled sub-genre. From his early days as one of the creative forces behind the brilliant Freaks and Geeks, he has put his name to some of the funniest television shows ever made including The Office, Parks and Recreation and Arrested Development. And on the silver screen the laughs continued with 2011’s uproariously crass Bridesmaids.
On the action front, Feig turned Melissa McCarthy into an action star in The Heat, Spy and the much-maligned “female” Ghostbusters—which was actually brilliant, to all you naysayers—that featured gloopy stunts galore. Then after trying something different with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively-starring sexy thriller A Simple Favour and George Michael-themed Yuletide fable Last Christmas, he has made the killer comedy JACKPOT!.
“This is the Jackie Chan movie I always wished I could make,” Feig explained to Entertainment Weekly. “What I love about Jackie Chan movies is that he’s a real everyman caught in a situation he doesn’t want to be in. He’s the master of panicked fighting versus ‘I’m cool, and I’m going to take you on.’ It’s not Bruce Lee,” he continues waxing lyrical about the Drunken Master and Police Story star. “It’s the ‘Get away from me, get away from me’ type of action. I don’t like mayhem and action for action’s sake. It always has to advance the plot, be character-driven and find the humour in people who aren’t normally in these situations getting in these situations—and how they get themselves out of it.”
Set in the near future, in JACKPOT! a new “Grand Lottery” has been established in California. There is one catch if you are “lucky” enough to win the big drawer. You have to fight for your life. If someone kills the winner before sundown, they can legally claim the multi-billion-dollar lottery for themselves.
JACKPOT! follows Katie, played by Awkwafina, a down on her luck former child star who is trying to rekindle her acting career after years away from Tinseltown. After a succession of unfortunate events, she finds herself wearing a gold tracksuit thanks to her psychotic Airbnb host Shadi (Ayden Mayeri) at a failed audition with a winning lottery ticket in her pocket. Soon everyone is trying to kill her and all that stands in the angry mob’s (or mobs’, plural) way is John Cena as amateur jackpot protector Noel who, for 10% of her winnings, vows to protect Katie until the sun sets.
Any of the fallen wrestlers who found themselves at the receiving end of his pummelling signature finishing move, the “Attitude Adjustment”, must have been surprised how their former adversary in the ring had transformed himself into Hollywood’s go-to comedy action star but now Cena, a 16-time WWE champion, effortlessly slots into the persona.
Cena first showed his comedy chops opposite Amy Schumer in Trainwreck: “I look like Mark Wahlberg ate Mark Wahlberg!” He has since always brought comedy gold to occasionally lacklustre films. From Daddy’s Home to this year’s Ricky Stanicky, he has punched above his weight in the comedy stakes. Not that he hasn’t used his considerable stature in actioners like Bumblebee, The Suicide Squad, and the subsequent Peacemaker series. Whatever he does though, he has no qualms poking fun at himself and that’s exactly what he does in JACKPOT!. Another addition to a growing line-up of adult comedies he has starred in.
“I’m certainly a fan of R-rated comedies dating back to like National Lampoon’s Animal House, Airplane!—actually Airplane! is PG, which is an amazing accomplishment for them and that movie—Caddyshack… all the way up to Step Brothers… Bridesmaids by our director, Paul Feig,” Cena told Screen Crush. “I’m grateful to be in movies that are brave enough to push the limits of R-rated comedy.”
His wide-eyed puppy dog take on an action hero is the perfect foil for Awkwafina’s acerbic wit. She also handles the slapstick choreography with aplomb as knives fly and limbs are broken. This is Paul Feig’s “Jackie Chan” movie after all. Since her turn in Jumanji: The Next Level, the Golden Globe-nominated The Farewell actress has been flexing her muscles in films like Renfield and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (starring Simu Liu who she is reunited with here—as is John Cena, who also guested on Barbie).
Ever charismatic, Liu shows why he was perfect to play a Ken as the debonaire Louis Lewis, the slick and incredibly successful big business rival of Noel’s who also makes a killing by offering protection to any jackpot winners in exchange for a percentage of their winnings. He just takes a much bigger cut.
All three leads deliver the winning goods ensuring that the preposterous central premise, no matter how over the top it is—especially the ease in which every Californian becomes a killing machine at the sniff of instant cash—remains easy to swallow. Looking past the high-flying kicks and low-blow gags, however, and the director has explained that the film is about friendship—and the buddy dynamic between Awkwafina and Cena is certainly off the charts.
Still, JACKPOT! is also something else as Feig joked when talking to Virgin Radio in the UK while promoting the film. “It’s a little Black Mirror… But much sillier.”
