On August 15, Prime Video presented another film with John Cena — after the frivolous nonsense «Ricky Stanicky» the service is launching a comedy action game «Jackpot! In it, the former wrestler is accompanied by Aquafina, Sima Liu, and even the outrageous performer Machine Gun Kelly. In the review below, we tell you what to expect from the new movie with the guy in the frame who was at the award ceremony «Oscar» did not hesitate to go on stage naked.
Pluses:
are missing;
Minuses:
the existence of this movie is a solid fat minus;
«Jackpot!»
Genre comedy action
Director Paul Fig
Starring John Cena, Aquafina, Simu Liu, Sean William Scott, Dolly de Leon, Machine Gun Kelly
Premiere Prime Video
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
After the Great Depression of 2026, the California government decides to launch a lottery with a substantial jackpot — the winner can become a millionaire or even a billionaire and ensure a comfortable existence for the rest of their lives. There is only one catch in this holiday, which is that the lucky person needs to stay alive until dawn because according to the rules of the draw, anyone can hunt him down and thus take the winnings for themselves. The only rule is that you cannot use firearms.
A young girl, Katie Kim, arrives in Los Angeles to continue her acting career, which she had pursued as a child but was forced to stop due to personal circumstances. She doesn’t even know that a lottery exists, but she accidentally registers for the drawing and unexpectedly becomes the winner, which literally makes the entire City of Angels try to kill her. The victim is helped by freelance defense with impressive muscles, and now the two of them will have to fight off citizens who want easy money.
The opening credits of «Jackpot!» seem to be trying to justify its violent and absurd setting in the spirit of «The Purge», urging the audience to treat what they are seeing with the utmost levity. «Some have called it dystopia. But such people are — not fun» — the message says.
Well, even with the most frivolous approach to viewing, you won’t be able to enjoy it, because the new film by the far from talented director Paul Feig is a ridiculous cringe.
The very opening scene, in which the cameo appearance of Sean William Scott as a lottery winner, literally screams at the viewer to turn off the movie and do something more interesting. Over time, the level of useless nonsense will only increase. But the hell with that nonsense because even from it you can squeeze something funny. But for some reason, there are no reasons to laugh when it is positioned as something comedic.
It’s almost impossible to watch, the irritating idiocy is so overwhelming.
The main characters rush from one location to another in vain, everyone around them fusses and fidgets, clumsily beating each other’s faces, and these adventures are supported by completely degenerate dialogues. The transcendent chaos that takes place on the screen blows your mind in the worst possible way. When watching the movie, there is a risk that you will physically feel your IQ level drop.
Among the numerous but futile throwing around, one can discern a social satire on class inequality, the infantile admiration of the character of Sina Ninja turtles and a mask that came out of a franchise somewhere «Mission Impossible». The fight scenes deserve a special mention, as they try to look innocent and funny, but instead turn out to be extremely clumsy.
In one of the episodes, a local special guest star — either rapper, pro poker player, or who knows who else, Machine Gun Kelly, will suddenly appear in the frame, but without this helpless cameo, his career would definitely not have suffered. After Marvel’s «Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings», things didn’t go so well for Simu Liu, who this year plays the same type of villain in a movie intended for streaming platforms for the second time in a row (the first was «Atlas» with J. Lo).
Aquafina and especially former wrestler John Cena feel like fish in water in this nonsense, although for the latter it is a common thing.
It’s doubly surprising to get such a shoddy product from Paul Feig, who has previously been known for absolutely sane comedy projects such as «The Heat» (2013) and especially «Spy» (2015). The only good thing about his new work — is that the story conveys a message about the value of human life in our cruel world. But it is worthless in the setting of a silly pseudo-comedy, which is no less torture than having to constantly escape from a rabid crowd.
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