Honestly this was a lot of fun for my tastes, I thoroughly enjoy any time John Cena is given material like this to work with because he's just great in these comic action roles, his timing is brilliant and of course he can carry himself when the violence comes in, I'm not as harsh on Awkwafina as a lot of people seem to be as well, I've generally liked her in everything I've seen her in to this point, and I actually really enjoy it when she plays a grouchier surly kind of character as she does here, similar to what she was doing in Quiz Lady last year actually, and it works especially well for me in Jackpot! as she plays off the golden retriever energy that Cena is bringing to the party.

What I really liked about Jackpot! though is how cynical it is, and how bitter it feels to be towards Los Angeles and California, overrun by democrats and liberals as I see it, I view this film as calling out the town and state for how shallow it's become, how disposable life has become and how everyone seems indifferent to anything but acquiring more, more wealth, more fame, more youth, more power etc, I'm a pretty conservative guy in life, I'm not religious about it or off the deep end enough to be shacking up with an armed conspiracy group in a rural backwater wearing a tin foil hat, but I do look at the world with a more conservative stance and everything I read about the day to day in liberal "paradise" such as California concerns me, greatly. I was genuinely surprised by how much of Jackpot! feels to be humorously jabbing at a lot of touchy subjects about the situation in L.A., and the underlying message of how crazed society has become in the pursuit of capital gains, it was unexpected but very welcome.

I think Jackpot! tends to surrender more and more to the more family friendly tones as it goes on, which is nice but maybe it would have been a better film if it went balls to wall with it's premise, I'm not saying don't have a happy ending, but maybe make it more of a shell-shocking experience for our protagonists to get there, of course there's no guarantee that would get you a better film, but I think Jackpot! was at it's strongest in the initial scenes after Katie began to be hounded, as the film went on from there and it became a lot more static it did slow the pace down, and I love seeing Simu Liu on my screen but his role in this was a big part part in the slow down. I'd have changed things up to get more of a full on Mad Max chase through the streets of L.A. maybe.

I also love that there's a cool Sean William Scott cameo here, good god someone please get this man back in movies again, he's here for all of a few minutes and it's great! Imagine how good he could be if he's cast in lead roles again people! Another thing I really liked about Jackpot! is the end credits, a lot of bloopers, some mid-credits style scenes, a lot of improv that didn't make it into the final film, it was really fun and I kind of wish all films did this, particularly comedies because that's where the fun bloopers are going to come from most you'd imagine, honestly make credits fun again to sit through.