You have to feel for John Cena. As his professional wrestling career is coming to a close, he’s been trying his best to break into the film industry… and it hasn’t been going well. But, god bless him, he’s been trying and he’s been trying a lot. Not to a whole lot of success but he has been trying! His latest outing, Jackpot!, out on Prime Video, has him teaming up with comedian Awkwafina and taking another stab at the action-comedy genre.

Is this finally his star making film? Well, no. Actually, I can’t say it’s really anything. But he’s trying!

Before I do go on with the review, I will say this is a SPOILER FREE review of Jackpot! I know it’s been out on Prime Video for a week or so by now. But I’m still making this a SPOILER FREE review for the millions of people who still haven’t watched it and might be morbidly curious on how bad this movie is. Got it? Good!

Jackpot! takes place a scant six years from now in 2030. California has implemented the Grand Lottery wherein each drawing is sure to bag the grand prize. The catch? Once a winner is picked, that person has to survive until sundown or around 6 PM in order to collect the prize. Oh, did I mention that whoever kills the winner of the Grand Lottery can automatically collect the prize? Silly me! Anyway, an aspiring actress named Katie accidentally becomes the winner and now everyone is out to kill her. It’s only thanks to Noel, a former mercenary who offers to keep Katie alive until the deadline for 10% of the winnings, she manages to survive the initial onslaught. Now, the duo have to find a way to make it to sundown to get the biggest Grand Lottery prize ever.

Now, I will say the premise feels like a throwback to dystopian 80s’ and 90s’ movies, which I do love. Maybe viewers today will shake their heads at how unbelievable it all is but I can dig it. I do believe movies and television shows can go as wild as they want as long as they make me invested in the world and make me believe that world is real. Too bad Jackpot! doesn’t!

They do try to create a world where you can believe in this semi-dystopian dysfunctional society but there’s just something really off about it all. It’s hard to put my finger on it but it just comes off wrong. Everyone is still going on with their day despite them knowing they should prepare to go out and unalive the Grand Lottery winner any minute. If it’s supposed to be a big deal, then the world should make it feel like a big deal! In its defense, Jackpot! is supposed to be a throwback to a time when you shouldn’t really think about the plot and just go with the flow. Fair enough but at least put some effort into making me enamored with the world I’m supposed to be in! Jackpot! is just a world filled with annoying and unlikeable people so why should I care about anyone?

Speaking of unlikable people, I simply did not like Awkwafina in the movie. She’s the winner of the Grand Lottery and, in all honesty, I kind of wish the mob of people did kill her. Now, I know some people like Awkwafina’s brand of humor and I’m generally okay with it. However, she just ramps up her Awkwafina-ness to a hundred and becomes insufferable. John Cena is fine overall but the film tries to make him a bit too childish for his own good. Much like Awkwafina, it feels like he’s trying too hard.

As Jackpot! is an action-comedy, I will say they do a good job with the action side of things. The fight scenes are pretty well choreographed. You can see all the hits clearly as, since this is a throwback to 80s’ and 90s’ films, they don’t use any of that darned shaky cam to make things look more intense. There’s supposed to be some laughs mixed in with the fights so being able to see things clearly was necessary. However, at the same time, the fight scenes could’ve been better if they did get more violent with them. Nothing really gets raised to above Three Stoogies style slapstick. Prime Video really could’ve maximized Jackpot!’s R-rating by giving us more brutal hits.

The comedy side of things, however, is just… bad. Jackpot! has a blooper reel at the end of its 106-minute runtime, showing off all of the jokes that were cut out of the film. So, you get the impression that the filmmakers really didn’t have set script and more of an outline of what’s going to happen. Or maybe the script was so bad, they thought “screw it” and told Awkwafina, John Cena and the rest of the cast to just wing it with the jokes. Unfortunately, the ones that they did leave in the movie just don’t work. If they had better comedic actors, maybe this might have been okay. But with both Awkwafina and John Cena just escalating their brands of humor left me with more groans than guffaws.

Would I recommend Jackpot! to anyone? To most people, no. While I did commend the fight and action scenes, the majority of the film’s runtime is just filled with an unbelievable universe, joyless jokes, an annoying Awkwafina and a John Cena who’s still trying to make it big in Hollywood. This is the kind of movie you really have to turn off your brain to try to find some amusement here. Jackpot! doesn’t hit the jackpot in any way.

Have you seen Jackpot? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!