‘Jackpot!’ Review: Awkwafina and John Cena Are the Winners in Paul Feig’s Broad Lottery Comedy

John Cena was understandably put out when Warner Bros. honcho David Zaslav coldly shelved his live-action/animated comedy, “Coyote vs Acme” last year. But he may have found some comfort in Paul Feig’s “Jackpot!” , which is basically an extended “Road Runner” episode.

Though there aren’t any actual cartoon characters in “Jackpot!”, it’s more than fair to call it cartoonish — and most of the participants probably wouldn’t argue the point.

Interestingly, it’s Cena — and co-lead Awkwafina — who give the two-dimensional structure some three-dimensional heft. But they have to work pretty hard to bust out of its repetitive cycle of low-stakes comic violence. There are no anvils involved, but there might as well be.

Awkwafina is the hapless Katie, a former child actor who’s just returned to a slightly-futuristic LA in order to revive her career. She’s arrived in 2026, by which point the country is in a recession and the city has turned into a winner-take-all dystopia. (You know, the kind of place where obscenely high-paid corporate leaders casually abandon buzzy family films that hundreds of people have worked on, just for the tax-write off.)

The city’s solution to widespread economic despair is a high-stakes lottery with a simple rule: Anyone who kills the winner before dark can claim the prize. But a winner who makes it to nightfall gets to keep it all.

When Katie accidentally wins, her only hope at survival is professional security guard Noel (Cena). Over the next several hours, they have to avoid, evade, and escape every possible type of threat from all the people who want her ticket.

Feig’s primary influences seem to be “Idiocracy,” “The Warriors,” “The Purge,” and Looney Tunes — and he is undoubtedly correct in assuming that this unholy mix will hit some people’s sweet spot.

For everybody else, the repetitive nature of Rob Yescombe’s script is likely to get old pretty quickly — Katie and Noel are chased by a seemingly endless array of bikers, goths, grandmas, and anyone else who can wear a wacky costume. Feig (“Bridesmaids”) and Yescombe (a video game writer and designer) go for simple silliness far too quickly, rather than tuning into the actual, ripe-for-satire state of Katie’s dying industry.

The disconnect probably isn’t helped by the fact that the movie is shot blandly in Atlanta standing in for LA. But the chaos intermittently coheres in some funny set pieces; Yescombe’s cheerful determination to throw everything at his leads means that he hits several targets in the frenetic race from an audition room to a dojo to a wax museum — and on, and on — as Katie tries to outrun her fate.

This approach only works when it does, however, because Awkwafina and Cena have real chemistry, and they both wisely underplay in the midst of so much goofy grotesquerie. Katie and Noel are outsiders who remain baffled by the mechanics of society, and each quiet moment they share eventually connects into a sweetly endearing story.

There is a lot of whiplash involved, between their grounded performances and the overly broad portrayal of other characters. But there’s also some real amusement to be mined by their solemnity in the most preposterous of situations. The wryly self-aware Katie keeps getting sideswiped by her streak of earnest humanity, and Noel is flat-out delightful in his hangdog sincerity.

Similarly, the supporting cast standouts are the two who take their roles most seriously: Simu Liu, as Noel’s slickly supercilious nemesis, and a hilariously deadpan Machine Gun Kelly, who should be on every casting director’s radar.

Ultimately, though, it’s the charming leads who keep us watching even as we race towards an inevitable outcome. While it’s hardly a personal acme, Feig knows that even the dizziest cartoon only works if there’s some real heart at its core. And on that score, at least, “Jackpot!” is a winner.

“Jackpot!” is now streaming on Prime Video.

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