Jackpot is set in the future timeline of the year 2030, where it has been made legal to kill a Lottery winner to claim the prize money by the one who kills. Well there are conditions, you have to kill the winner to become the winner of 3.6 billion US Dollar, before the sundown on the day of announcement of the winner. You cannot use a gun but anything else is okay to use, a dagger, a chair, a knife, or just anything that can kill, just no guns!
Jackpot is directed by Paul Feig, and it stars Awkwafina as the main protagonist. Katie Kim (Awkwafina) is an aspiring actress whoreturns to California for audition after her ailing mother passes away. After landing into a poor quality Airbnb stay, with the hosts defrauding her, Katie accidentally enters into the deadly Lottery and wins it.
To her horror she discovers that everyone in the city is after her blood. Trying to hoodwink and save herself from her bloodthirsty fans, she keeps escaping and encounters Noel (John Cena), who protects her in return for a 10% commission from her prize money. There are stunts, fist fights, car racings, bikes, gunshots, petrol bombs, and almost street fights targeted at killing her, but her freelancer lottery protection agent Noel keeps saving her life. A hovering drone keeps updating the location of the lottery winner allowing mobs to reach and attack the target.
Luis Lewis (Simu Lui) plays a perfect bad guy, who runs one of the most respected Lottery Protection Agencies in California. In a distress call made by Noel to save Katie, Luis comes in with his super guarded crew to save Katie and Noel, of course for a hefty commission. Noel and Luis had worked together on a mission, which Noel had left midway. There is a plan to move Katie to a discreet location, where Luis team wants to separate Noel and Katie. And their instincts make them feel fishy about Luis Lewis’ operations, and they realize that Katie isn’t being protected but instead her life is in danger in the hands of Luis.
Katie succeeds in escaping, but Noel is held hostage and that makes Katie return to the location as directed by Luis. And aspiring actress turns into a real actor at many times in the story, where Katie confuses the bad guys with her acting and makes them eat the dust. Eventually, she survives the day and remains alive before the sundown.
Katie had a bitter relationship with her father who duped her of all her savings and her mother had passed away recently, didn’t have any meaningful relationships in life. Noel turns into a meaningful relationship, as they have many good things of humanity common between them.
The movie runs pretty fast, the humour is a bit silly, daggers and knives are too repetitive, but both the key actors i.e. Awkwafina and John Cena share an excellent on-screen chemistry. Enjoy this action comedy of a different kind with funny fight scenes, where the ‘fans’ are gunning for the life of the protagonist.
Praveen Nagda, Festival Director of KidzCINEMA and CultureCinema Film Festivals
