James’s review published on Letterboxd:
Not hitting a jackpot with this one.
The film follows an aspiring actress named Katie who finds herself on the run from everyone in LA after her name is drawn in a lottery wherein whoever kills her can take her $3.6 billion prize for themselves.
Well, I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this. I think Paul Feig is a decent enough director from what I've seen, and the cast he assembled seemed to be pretty decent, but the trailer really didn't do a whole lot for me, and sadly, neither does the movie. I will be nice and say that the film has some surprisingly solid action sequences. There's a lengthy car chase, a fun game of cat and mouse in an awful wax museum, a couple of brawls that take full advantage of John Cena's gigantic stature, and a few genuinely solid stunts. It's not the best action of the year or anything, but it was far better than I expected from a random Prime Video release. They also put in some decent comedic beats into the fights (expect quite a few dick kicks), but these fights and chases get pretty repetitive over time, as does the film's plot.
The story here is a simple one, Katie Kim's name gets pulled in the lottery, John Cena's Noel works as a protector to keep her safe until sundown so that they can claim their prize, things get a bit more complicated when a figure from Noel's past comes in to try to steal Katie away from him. It just becomes a jumbled up action comedy as it just sort of boils down to Awkwafina and Cena running from an entire city's worth of potential opponents, rarely ever stopping to give us any real character building nor plot development. Around the midpoint the film gives us a more clear cut villain in Simu Liu's Louis Lewis (that is his character's actual name) and a bit more about Katie and Noel through some exposition dumps, but it doesn't really vary up the plot nor pacing in any meaningful way, if anything it sort of slows the film down for around 15 minutes.
I will say that I do think that the cast is at least pretty decent. I know there are many who will deeply dislike this movie because it stars Awkwafina, but I think she's a fairly decent comedian. I thought she was pretty funny here, but as has become the case in recent years, John Cena really steals the show whenever he arrives. His meat headedness is great fun to watch, and he's a genuinely likeable character. Liu is a much better villain here than he was in this year's extremely forgettable Atlas, not necessarily because his character is interesting nor intimidating, but more because he has some genuine chemistry with his co-stars this time around, letting him have more fun in the role. I also quite enjoyed Ayden Mayeri's Shadi, an air headed influencer/air bnb host who is out for Katie's jackpot as well. The comedy itself is pretty hit or miss (leaning more towards miss), but these actors all give it their all, and there's a pretty funny blooper reel at the end that shows that these people are funnier than the script they've been given.
In the end, this was a mixed bag of a film, one that's not really awful, but nothing incredible. I'll honestly be shocked if I remember this one by the end of the month.
