Jackpot! director talks about film’s criticism

Director and producer Paul Feig has gone on record to say the film’s critics “took the biggest dump” on the recently released Jackpot! film. He labeled the flick as a “Jackie Chan movie.”

While speaking with fellow actor and podcast host, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, on the Dinner’s on Me podcast (via Hollywood Reporter), he said that he could be happy the John Cena and Awkwafina starring flick has stayed at the top of Amazon for four weeks now and then lamented about the critics, boiling the criticism down to misunderstanding the film’s intentions.

“Now I can be happy because we’ve been the No. 1 movie worldwide on Amazon for four weeks in a row now, which is fantastic. But the critics excoriated us. I mean, took the biggest dump on this movie. All I can figure, from the reviews I read, I think they were trying to find a lot of meaning in this premise.”

Jackpot! follows Katie Kim, played by Awkwafina, a former child star looking to make it big, only to win a government-run lottery. This high-stakes lottery tasks the winner to stay alive until sundown while all losing ticket-holders can attempt to kill them — barring guns — and take the winnings for themselves. She meets Noel Cassidy, played by John Cena, who agrees to protect her for 10% of her winnings.

Amazon MGM Studios is currently working alongside Margot Robbie’s production company and EA to take The Sims into the film space.

Jackpot! is available now on Prime Video.