Jackpot!

Yeah, that was crap. From the trio of Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat), Awkwafina and John Cena I expected a brutal comedy blast, full of humour, that would have me laughing out loud, with loads of jokes, but the result is exactly the opposite. The humour is terribly weak, I laughed only a few times, the jokes are dry and Cena has nothing to work with here, because his character is too ordinary, characterless and not interesting, Awkwafina can do better roles too. So we have two great comedy actors under the baton of a seasoned comedy director in a very surprisingly big misstep that probably no one expected. We were expecting a lot more, but this was so bad that I had trouble finishing it. The idea is perfect and a lot could have been made out of it, but it's woefully underused and there's nothing to stand on at all. (2024.08.16)

Imagine a creative-writing seminar for untalented novices on the topic of “write a screenplay and make every piece of dialogue a one-liner”. And they take it literally. The result is not the customary one joke per five lines, but the rare feat of  “one eyeroll per joke”. There is zero chemistry between the protagonists and Feig’s directing gives the impression that he would rather not even be there, preferring to let the actors spout dreadful bullshit. Jackpot! is a symptom of the age of streaming. Don’t be surprised if in a few years people will only be interested in YouTubers and influencers, which will still be better than this mindless crap. (2024.08.23)

Paul Feig probably won't surpass Spy, but this is good fun. The idea of being able to kill the winner of the lottery and legally take the jackpot is very cool. Awkwafina is mostly annoying but I didn't mind her here, and John Cena is as fun and fine as always, even Simu Liu one is cool. The action is rather fun and interesting, but it’s a shame that it’s not R-rated, if there was also some nice gore I would definitely go higher with the rating. In terms of humour it could have been better too, but there were a few laughs. It goes by nicely, there is always something going on, for me a good stuff. 6/10. (2024.08.20)