Rating: Full

Genre: Comedy, Action

Studios: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/RK Films/F. Co Entertainment

Cast: Awkwafina, John Cena, Ayden Mayeri, Donald Elise Watkins, Sam Asghari and Simu Liu

Director: Paul Feig

Writers: Rob Yescombe

Producers: Paul Fieg, Laura Fischer, Jeff Kirschenbaum and Joe Roth

Music by: Theodore Shapiro

Rated: R for pervasive language, violence and sexual references

Release Date: 08/15/24

Tagline: Take the money and run

Favorite Character: Katie Kim

Quote: “After this, there’s an oboe going right up your ass.”- Noel

Fun Fact: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures in one scene aren’t props, they really belong to John Cena.

The Review: Earlier this year, John Cena made a huge appearance in an Amazon Prime R-rated comedy ‘Ricky Stanicky’ He plays a character that outcasts all the other characters (even Zac Efron’s leading role) as we watch him transform from an X-Rated version of Weird Al to the real life imaginary friend.

Now he is back in another of 2024’s Amazon Prime’s R rated comedies, this one being directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), this retired wrestler portrays a TMNT obsessed freelancer protector of the lottery winners. But Cena wasn’t not protecting the winners because of the fact that people would want to befriend the lucky winner, actually these people are trying to KILL the winner.

Yes, you heard me, they are trying to kill the jackpot winner. Jackpot sets in 2030 during the second Great Depression with a crisis so bad, the desperate government of California had to create a Lottery system. It is like regular Lottery, but with a deadly twist!

Whoever is the lucky (or should I say, unlucky) Jackpot (what they call winners) has until sundown to stay alive and avoid the killer crowds before keeping his/her prize.

Everyone else who didn’t win has a opportunity to claim the winner’s jackpot by legally murdering him/her. The only rule is they are not allowed to use shooting guns, so they would just have to be creative and use whatever they can get their hands on as a weapon.

Not everyone wants to kill the winner though, there are groups of people rooting on the Jackpot. a company determine to try and protect the winners (I said TRY) For John Cena, his new client is a former child star Katie Kim (Awkwafina) who just moved looking for a hopeful start as an actress after losing her mother in Michigan.

She wasn’t aware of the whole Lottery purge and only won because she had accidently entered the lottery with a high tech card, which is a record breaking $3.6 billion. She may have not gotten the role she was auditioning for that time. But she is about to find out that she IS the role of this story, if she is still alive at the end that is.

So, was the result of Paul Feig’s new R rated flick?

On one hand, the action part of this action comedy works with all the amount of knife throwing and the chorography that may have been inspired by a Jackie Chan movie. On the other hand, the comedy felt flat with so many jokes feeling so clutzy throughout almost 2 hours of the film.

But it doesn’t matter if the movie was more action packed than funny, because I believe Jackpot! did good in keeping up with the promising premise that was seen in the trailer that many other films failed to do.

And did I mention Awkwafina is terrific at bringing chemistry with other actors. Look at her and Sandra Oh in last years ‘Quiz Lady’ and her and Simu Liu (which he stars as a head of the Jackpot protection company) for a little Shang-Chi reunion. So it shouldn’t come a shock that her and John Cena’s time together on the screen didn’t tremble down like the stock market. Plus, we get a cameo from Machine Gun Kelly.

As Jackpot! may not not be a lucky winner, it is not close to a losing ticket either, so no way am I saying that this isn’t a fun time nor that this is not crazy ridiculous.