Amazon’s ‘Jackpot!’ is an absurd (and mostly flat) commentary on child stardom

If John Cena and Awkwafina are billed as the top two stars, then you know you’re in for A Movie, and Amazon MGM Studios’ latest gamble, Jackpot!, is exactly that—and nothing more.

Jackpot is the newest action-comedy to hit Prime Video and sees Bridesmaids and A Simple Favor alum Paul Feig returning to the director’s chair for this ultra-violent summer romp. It’s unserious, totally absurd, and looks like something plucked straight out of the early 2000s, but really, what did you expect? And even though it’s few and far between, Jackpot! still manages to have a little heart.

Spoilers ahead for Jackpot.

What is Jackpot about?

Set in a futuristic Los Angeles where the economy has tanked and the city’s $3 billion “Grand Lottery” is king, Jackpot! follows the story of an unlikely duo—with lots of silly bits, sex jokes, and pop culture nods to boot. When we first meet our protagonist Katie (Awkwafina), she’s a down-on-her-luck actress and former child star returning to Hollywood after caring for her sick mother. Somehow, a mix-up with her ditzy Airbnb host (Ayden Mayeri) and an unfortunate sewage incident (yes, we’re still making poop jokes in 2024) puts Katie in possession of a winning lottery ticket. Predictably, chaos ensues.

In this dystopian world, lottery winners only get their winnings if they survive until sundown, while others can take the prize by murdering them. Despite the whole “no guns” rule, people have come up with plenty of crafty ways of finding—and legally killing—the winner, meaning Katie finds herself in an all-out bloodbath of people trying to get their hands on her money. Enter Noel (John Cena), a freelance “protection agent” who offers to keep Katie alive for a cut of her earnings. She agrees, and the two team up, but an emergency leads them to Louis Lewis (Simu Liu), Noel’s estranged pal from the military and the now-CEO of a corporate protection agency with a shady track record.

Oh, and Machine Gun Kelly is here for some reason.

I genuinely couldn’t tell you why, but who cares? It’s fun! Hell, this is a streaming original movie. The bar is low—just don’t take Jackpot! too seriously and you’ll probably have a good time. Money = bad. Still, we have to talk about the wasted potential of it all, because hardly any of these jokes land, which is kind of a shame considering the film has someone as talented as Paul Feig—a certified comedy hitmaker—at the helm.

Jackpot annoyingly misses the mark despite a fun premise

John Cena and Awkwafina’s chemistry is OK here, but it’s safe to say that their skills are best utilized elsewhere. Simu Liu playing a campy, over-the-top villain dropping F-bombs every other sentence kind of worked for me, but quippy improv and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles references can’t save Jackpot! from having a chronic case of the unfunnies. It’s painfully obvious that not a single Gen Z-er’s Apple Pencil got anywhere near this script, because as you could probably tell, the humor feels juvenile and outdated (i.e. “You would turn my a**hole into the Eye of Sauron”—no, I will not elaborate).

I mentioned that Jackpot! does have its moments buried beneath the unbearable fart jokes and Kardashian jabs, especially when it comes to Katie’s upbringing as a child star. It’s not exactly nuanced, but the film does touch on the subject of child exploitation, as it’s revealed that Katie’s deadbeat father took all of her income from her hit Spaghetti Squares commercial and left, leaving her and her mother to struggle financially. Because of this, Katie has a complicated relationship with money, and wants to quit the lottery ASAP—she wants nothing to do with the madness and mayhem.

It’s only when Noel reminds Katie that she’s “not an ATM” that she finds the motivation to fight, not for herself, but for her newfound friend. She ultimately uses her winnings to launch some charities—one of which is a center for kids with “s***ty parents.” Does Jackpot! really care about sharing a powerful message about child stardom, Coogan Accounts, and the inherent evils of money? Absolutely not. But considering this is pretty much the only internal conflict in the entire movie, I’ll take what I can get.

Which, in this case, isn’t a lot. Jackpot! loses more than it wins in the end, but if you’re looking to shut off your brain and watch John Cena shatter a yoga instructor’s ankle, among other things, then you can watch Jackpot on Prime Video on August 15, 2024.