BEFORE: I've got "After-School Special" shifts, this week, three in the next 6 days anyway, that's a week of programming at the theater specifically chosen to showcase work by alumni of the School of Visual Arts (which is the college that Keith Haring went to, many other creative people have learned their crafts there, too). So I'm working a Friday-night showcase of shorts followed by a reception, and Sunday there's a screening of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse", which I've seen. They're also re-screening "Barbie" with a couple of alumni guests who worked on visual effects for that film, but I'm not on that shift. This week's screenings are free and open to the public, so if you're in the NYC area, come by SVA on West 23rd St. and check them out.
Tonight's screening is a film that's going to fit RIGHT into my chain for next week, and replace "5-25-77" that I was forced to drop. So I'm going to try to watch it tonight (which I can do, unless it's a full house) and then I'll review it next week, just before October 1, it just so happens to have Steve Coulter in it, which would be an amazing coincidence, except that I've learned there's no such thing. There is only the chain, and the chain is filled with opportunities and happy accidents, not coincidences.
John Cena carries over from "Blockers".
THE PLOT: In the near future, a "Grand Lottery" has been established in California. The catch: anyone can kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot.
AFTER: Well, I've already had one film this year about winning the lottery ("Jerry and Marge Go Large") and last week I watched a film about a reality show where the participants can be killed ("Self-Reliance"), so really, how can I NOT watch this film, which ties both ideas together. Set in California in the 2030's, it features a lottery, followed by very public attempts to KILL that lottery winner, and the person who kills them wins the jackpot in their place. THAT person is then safe from harm, and gets the giant novelty check. Jeezus, how did/will an American state come up with this?
The answer comes in the form of the 2nd Great Depression. The state needed money, and what better way to raise money than by having a lottery? We keep getting larger and larger PowerBall jackpots, right? And after a few rollovers when there is no winner (the unlucky winner can choose to leave California with their life intact, however they then also forfeit the jackpot) the jackpot gets up to a few Billion with a B, and nearly all the average people are turned into homicidal maniacs who absolutely WILL KILL if it means they get all that money. But come on, let's say they win $3 billion, but half of that goes to taxes, right? So 1.5 billion, but then that probably gets spread out over 30 years, or they take a lump sum payment which is less, so with the lump sum that probably goes down to a flat billion, and maybe in the year 2030 $1 billion doesn't buy what it used to, because of inflation. Then you have to figure after a depression the U.S. dollar might be worth even less, so really, is it worth it?
They make a mention in the film about increased traffic leaving California just before the drawing - as anyone who leaves the state would be safe (AND also disqualified from "winning") this tracks. The really lucky person would be someone who leaves Cali and then gets chosen, so then they can still walk down the street in the next state and not get killed by anyone and everyone passing by. The only other rule in the competition is NO GUNS, and sure, this makes sense if liberal California passed some anti-gun legislation in the late 2020's, then wanted to have this lottery in place but couldn't repeal the anti-gun laws. I'm way overthinking this, right? It's just a dumb silly action movie meant for people who enjoy stunts and fight scenes.
For a while there, I was buying 2 PowerBall tickets (one with chosen numbers and one random "quick pick") when the jackpot went over a certain amount, but I never came close to winning, or even getting two numbers right out of six. I did win $500 from a Foxwoods slot machine once, and that pretty much paid for Christmas that year, and I think I won a similar amount on a scratch-off ticket once, I had an aunt & uncle who gave everyone lottery tickets for Christmas. Also I won the "Hamilton" lottery once, and my wife and I got to see the show from front-row seats for just $10 each (a Hamilton for a Hamilton), so who knows, maybe I used up all my luck.
Luck's a funny thing, maybe it's subjective and based on how you look at things. Is that the point of this scenario, to make us question the nature of luck? Hey, I've been married twice and divorced once, so I tend to think that over time, things tend to even out, and obviously the life expectancy of everything over time is zero. So what is luck and what is the point of this movie? Just to have fun and show off, I think - probably no deeper metaphysical meaning is there to be found.
Former actress Katie Kim comes back in town, trying to revive her career after spending a decade back in Michigan, caring for her mother. She rents an AirBnB that turns out to be a disaster, her roommate is another aspiring actress and also her audition leads her nowhere. I must have missed the part where she buys the lottery ticket, and the Wikipedia plot doesn't mention it either. But she's unaware of how the new Grand Lottery works, because she's been away for so long, and she doesn't realize what's going on when everyone at the casting agent's office and also the nearby karate dojo AND the yoga center all suddenly want to kill her.
Enter Noel Cassidy, the freelance Lottery protection agent who offers to help her stay alive until sundown so she can collect the prize, in exchange for 10% of the winnings. Not a terrible deal, since 10% of $3.6 billion would still be $360 million. Right? This gives John Cena's character a lot of great scenes as he fights off all those murderous karate guys and yoga moms and loads Katie into his car, which is bullet-proof and tricked out like a James Bond car. However a drone camera in the sky tracks the winner's movements, and posts Katie's location to the internet and phone apps every 14 minutes, so really, nowhere is safe.
First Katie tries to hide in a wax museum - a great idea, because nobody's paid to go to one of those in 20 or 30 years. But Katie's roommate calls her and figures out where she is, so Noel and Katie try hiding in a celebrity's panic room, which is another great idea. But eventually the murder mob figures out a way in, and so Noel needs to call an old buddy, Louis, who runs a more sophisticated protection outfit, which will take a larger percentage of her winnings, however they have more resources to keep her alive, so perhaps it's worth it?
However, Noel suspects that his old friend is not legit, and is only pretending to keep lottery winners safe, so Katie takes off and tries to head for the border, which means she'd forfeit the jackpot, but also still stay alive. Louis kidnaps Noel, however, in order to force Katie to come back to L.A. and surrender to him, which means he might kill her himself and keep her prize, in either order. This leads to a showdown at an abandoned Hollywood theater between all the main players - who will be left standing when the sun goes down and the time runs out?
Originally, this film was going to be titled "Grand Theft Lotto", or perhaps "Grand Death Lotto", but they apparently couldn't get the rights to that name because it was too similar to the "Grand Theft Auto" video-game series. So instead they just went with "Jackpot", which unfortunately seems almost as plain and boring as "Blockers" or "Spaceman" or "The Report". Still, it's a lot of fun and very heavy on the choreographed fight scenes (as an actress, Katie had completed a "stage-fighting" course) so if action's your thing, this might be right up your alley.
Also starring Awkwafina (last seen in "Quiz Lady"), Ayden Mayeri (last seen in "Somebody I Used to Know"), Donald Elise Watkins (last seen in "Supercon"), Colson Baker (Machine Gun Kelly) (last seen in "The Dirt"), Simu Liu (last seen in "Barbie"), Adam Ray (ditto), Seann William Scott (last seen in "Bulletproof Monk"), Marian Green, Rosanna Scotto (last seen in "A Simple Favor"), Dolly de Leon (last seen in "Triangle of Sadness"), Murray Hill, Becky Ann Baker (last seen in "The Half of It"), Sam Asghari (last seen in "Can You Keep a Secret?"), Monique Ganderton (last seen in "The Killer"), Steven Shelby, John Santiago, Bobby Lee (last seen in "The Wrong Missy"), Leslie David Baker (last heard in "Vivo"), Rylea Hendreschke, David Conk, Josh Diogo, Jordan Salmon, Theresa Sutera, Lisa Catara, Mathew Seiden, Holmes, Cassidy Kahler, Vanessa Cater (last seen in "Jumanji: The Next Level"), Holly Dowell, Stella Reimer, Taylor Ortega, Michael Hitchcock (last seen in "Your Place or Mine"), Richard Nunez, Casey Hendershot, Cole Eckert, Imani Love.
RATING: 6 out of 10 homicidal tourists on a tour bus
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