Jackpot! Review : A goofy, cringey, unpretentious watch that gets exhausting after a point

Story: In a dystopian world in the near future, California introduces a 'Grand Lottery' with a twist. If the winner of the 'Jackpot' is killed within a time frame, then the killer gets to keep the spoils.

Review: Following The Great Depression of 2026, in the year 2030, an aspiring actor, Katie Kim (Awkafina) moves to LA with hopes of finally living her dream. But soon finds herself in the middle of the 'Grand Lottery' hunt.

During an audition, she mistakenly clicks on her Airbnb host's (Ayden Mayeri) lottery ticket and activates it with her details. Before she can even realise what has happened, Katie wins the lottery which happens to be the biggest yet and finds herself being chased by lottery hunters who want to kill her.

However since the Grand Lottery rules state that she can't be killed with a gun, she finds the moment to make a run for it. And bumps into Noel (John Cena), who has committed himself to protecting those being hunted for the lottery. He asks for a 10% commission as his fee and informs her that her location gets updated to her 'fans' every few minutes by the Grand Lottery's drone. And now they are on the run together.

However at one point, Noel is forced to contact his rival Louis Lewis (Simu Liu) to bail them out of a sticky situation (a hilarious sequence with Machine Gun Kelly playing himself). And while he sends his team to rescue them, Louis Lewis seems to be after the prize money too.

Staying true to it's genre of an action-comedy 'Jackpot' lands the punches and punchlines quite consistently with set action pieces stacked one after the other. However after a while it feels like a repetitive wheel and is exhausting to watch.

With a predictable plot there are no surprises in the storyline but just plenty of twists to keep the narrative running - so it begins to feel like a mash up of preposterous jokes and action scenes on repeat. Some good and some just plain cringe-worthy. However, overall one could even view the theme as a futuristic social commentary where everyone is out to kill someone for the money just because the rules state they can do so.

Awkafina holds up well with her screen presence and comic timing and is good with her action scenes. Simu Liu is a hoot as the evil Louis and John Cena balances the humour and action well. Action choreographer James Young plays to the strengths of each of the actors - Awkafina as the clumsy, inexperienced one yet pulling off the escapes from every tricky situation and Cena as the muscle-man bashing up the baddies.

Overall 'Jackpot' is goofy, at times cringey and unpretentious, not delivering anything more than it promised.