Jackpot!
B+
My biggest complaint about “Jackpot!” is that there is no possible reason this crazy, don’t- think-just-laugh, essence of summer silliness, action comedy should be straight to streaming. We should be coming from the hot air into the air-conditioned theater, grabbing a bucket of popcorn, and joining an audience that is all there to laugh together. “Jackpot!” is a joyously goofy hoot of a movie with a killer cast. And that works very well, even if you’re watching it at home on your laptop.
The premise is simple. Okay, deranged, but simple. A few years in the future, everything is terrible. Los Angeles has established a gigantic lottery. The twist is that when a winner is picked, everyone in the city has 24 hours to kill the winner (no guns, though, only what can be thrown) and take the money. Winners’ options are to evade a city full of murders, despite drone cameras reporting their location to everyone every 14 minutes, to escape across the city border, thus staying alive but foregoing the prize, or hiring a high-end security firm that specializes in protecting winners.
If the person with the lucky winning ticket manages to survive for 24 hours, the prize is delivered on camera, one of those cheesy giant cardboard checks. presented by a ghoulishly grinning game show host played by the delightful Murray Hill (Fred Rococo in “Somebody Somewhere”).
