Amazon Prime’s Jackpot! Review
Purging California through the Lottery
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Everyone in LA is out to kill Katie
Sometimes a film can be a magnum opus. A work so influential that an entire generation refers to that piece for inspiration. Amazon Prime Video’s new feature film Jackpot! is not one of these. However, its existence somewhat verifies the ever growing sentiment that The Purge franchise, which itself was loosely inspired by a Star Trek premise, is indeed a modern cultural icon.
A concept so absurd where killing is legal should only work for horror and suspense genres right? Clearly this premise isn’t destined for comedic success right? Well, Jackpot! gives an earnest attempt at making a ludicrous theme comedic.
Here’s the premise: A has-been former child commercial actress Katie Kim (Awkwafina), returns to Los Angeles as an adult in hopes of reviving her entertainment career. This California in the near future is very similar to the one in our real world, but with one extreme piece of new legislature designed to satiate financial depression and to reduce violent crime.
A new lottery system was implemented in the golden state called the Grand Lottery where nearly every citizen has a lottery card that is outfitted with a biometric scanner. The prize pools are large and every Angeleno has an opportunity to claim the prize for themselves. Everyone has a fair shot. That is if they can kill the randomly selected winner before sundown. Contestants can use everything except firearms in the endeavor to incapacitate the unlucky winner. It’s basically The Purge set in the economically divisive backdrop of Hollywood.
Unlike the horror franchise, Jackpot! is led by comedic minds like director Paul Feig, who also directed Bridesmaids in 2011 which let me remind everyone was nominated for an Academy Award that year at the Oscars. I went into this comedy with an open mind and surprisingly I found myself entertained. No, it isn’t a comedy gem that you’ll remember random scenes from and use as inside jokes with your coworkers during lunch 20 years later. However, for a Friday night stay-at-home flick, it certainly could have been worse.
The Contestants
A lot of what makes Jackpot! actually work out decently has to do with the acting range of Awkwafina. The Asian American comedian is an acquired taste for sure, but she certainly is entertaining in just about all of the roles she’s ever landed. With her unique voice, her enthusiastic facial expressions, and her somewhat over the top theater-like mannerisms, I found this role perfectly suited to her talents.
Another actor who fits like a match made in heaven into a film like this is John Cena. The WWE superstar turned actor is no spring chicken to Hollywood acting now, but portraying Noel, who is a super skilled, unrealistically kind hearted, somewhat naive protector to a younger girl is reminiscent of roles carved out by other former wrestlers. Fellow former WWE champion Dave Batista had a surprising hit on his hands playing a similar character in My Spy and its sequel. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson also played a similar role in Tooth Fairy. I find John Cena in particular to have found his niche with this type of role. Even his Peacemaker moniker has some of these characteristics. Cena just has this big hearted dumb goof vibe that gets incorporated to all of his roles now.
The big goofball protector
The master of the Attitude Adjustment has displayed the acting prowess to pull off these somewhat bonehead, but big softie roles through various Amazon roles recently. A perfect example of this is when Cena played the titular character Ricky Stanicky in another Amazon Prime production. It’s hard to take Cena seriously, but it’s also hard to discredit the fact that he does have a certain on-screen charisma and charm that is hard to replicate.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine the pairing of Awkwafina and John Cena to actually mesh well together as leads in a film. For the most part, Jackpot! proves that both of them have the ability to push out of the boundaries of support roles. Their chemistry isn’t perfect by any means though. Oftentimes, scenes feel like monologues recited in succession. It’s a bit unnatural, but I wouldn’t necessarily limit this to just Jackpot!’s writing. A lot of modern comedies rely on an insane amount of verbal juxtaposition in order to induce a laugh from the audience instead of physically showing why something should be funny.
Most of the comedic tropes that I actually found amusing was a result of the break neck pacing of the plotting. Once the inciting incident kicks in and Katie wins the lottery, there’s little breathing room to spare. It’s one action packed scene that leads to another for the rest of the movie. I think that’s the saving grace for Jackpot! as the storyline is extremely predictable, but it does keep viewers interested in seeing what other absurd situations the lotto winner can find themselves in next.
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Most of the sticky situations that Katie lands herself in are thrusted onto her by greedy random citizens of Los Angeles. A theme that the film tries to push is that trust in Hollywood is hard to come by. Everyone is out to backstab one another for their own selfish gains in the city of angels. It’s an shallow theme that lacks the proper depth in this story to really push the idea through in the narrative.
As a Angeleno myself, I found the Jackpot!’s portrayal of my city to be ironically accurate. It’s a mess out here in the golden state right now and it’s crazy that I can fathom some people doing the violent things in real life that Katie experienced in the movie.
The one pursuer that really stuck out among the sea of potential billionaire hunters was Ayden Mayeri’s Shadi character. As Katie’s scummy, and extremely scammy Airbnb host, she and her boyfriend, a DJ named DJ, serve as early antagonists. This over exaggerated personification of a selfish young Los Angeles local nearly stole the show from other big name comedians in this film. Ayden Mayeri has that “uh I’m your friend but not really” acting skill set nailed down to a tee. She hits the fun chaos note in every single scene she’s in.
Another actor who’s comedic chops aren’t appreciated nearly enough is Simu Liu. He reunites with his Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings sidekick, Awkwafina, albeit this time as her supporting character. His character’s story path can be seen mapped out from a mile away, but Simu Liu continues to prove that he’s a multi-facet actor. There’s some of his Ken from Barbie here in his portrayal of Louis Lewis, the owner of a protection agency for lotto winners.
Made For Streaming
Jackpot! really isn’t that deep. Unlike The Purge franchise where it’s somewhat fun to think about the complex social and economical situations that legal killing can do for a society in a psychological manner, this premise doesn’t hit the same for The Grand Lottery format. This is one of those dumb movies you watch once and get a couple of chuckles out of it and quickly forget ever happened.
That’s perfect content for a streaming platform like Amazon Prime Video. If this was distributed through a traditional means, it has direct to DVD vibes all over it. Now that every production house has a deal with a streaming distributor, it opens the market up to projects that wouldn’t have seen the light of day just a decade ago. This means more work for actors, for writers, for editors, and especially for production filmmakers. I wouldn’t have paid money to go to a cinema to watch Jackpot!, but I will click on it and give it a shot from a streaming service I already pay for. Direct to DVD used to have this lower quality stigma behind it. Now studios have a chance to recalibrate that image with made for streaming content.
Still, I personally miss these types of campy movies. We’ve migrated towards a complex world where everything needs to spell out a politically correct message. In many ways, Jackpot! wasn’t afraid to mock the economic establishment. A lot of the jokes at the expense of California are things locals have been complaining about for years now. Ironically, the funniest and most realistic line in the entire film is at the very end when The Grand Lottery establishment representative hands Katie and Noel an oversized check and asks them what they’re going to do now that they're billionaires.
Katie responds with “I’m gonna get the F*** out of Los Angeles!”
Yes Katie, we'd like to get out of LA too
Alex
Caught in between the conundrum of his fascination with retro and the future, Alex has a very unique taste in technology. Never one to follow trends like his millennial peers yet constantly desiring to get ahead of the curve, he sees technology like he does his other love: comic books. Always looking for the best value or a hidden gem, his collector mindset reflects on some of his favorite gadgets: the Moto X (2015), HTC U11 and the Google Pixelbook. If there’s a good tech deal out there, Alex is on the hunt!