Jackpot! & The Union (2024) – Movie Reviews

I wanted to trust Paul Feig here, but unfortunately, I had some concerns based on how Jackpot! looked in trailers. And those worries were not put at ease by the final product. The concept itself is not awful. I do appreciate original ideas every now and then, but ultimately the “bad things happen to the person down on their luck who may have struck gold” concept isn’t too new at this point (hell, it’s not even the first time it’s happened this year—Self Reliance), and it doesn’t take it in too interesting of a direction.

Awkwafina is fine in this movie. It’s roles like this that make me wonder if The Farewell was just a fluke. She and Adam Sandler are similar in the sense that I always wonder why they don’t actually pursue interesting roles but instead just go for an easy paycheck, and that’s what this feels like. John Cena is pretty great here. I feel like his range is pretty underrated; he’s got some great comedic chops, can play lovable or villainous really well, and generally has a really strong screen presence. The movie is better for him being in it.

But as for the actual gags or jokes, almost none of them made me laugh. I never felt any real sense of stakes here. I knew from the moment this movie started where it was heading from the first few sequences in this film. It’s tough to compare to Self Reliance (2023), directed by Jake Johnson, but that film at least had tension. There was an uneasy feeling of where that film was leading to. Whereas this absolutely did not have that. It was just full of clichés and silly tropes.

Some stunts were pretty cool, and Cena is always fun to watch. But ultimately it’s one of the biggest eye-roll-inducing films I’ve seen this year. Not egregious, just insanely annoying and predictable. And that’s not even mentioning how stupid Simu Liu’s character is in this film. Seriously, what happened to him? I was hyping him up after Shang-Chi and he has done nothing interesting as an actor since (Barbie [2023] is good, but he’s not that interesting in it). Overall, this was not for me and really let me down.

‘Jackpot!’ Rating – 2/5

What happened to Mark Wahlberg? It seems like every other year he’s releasing a subpar movie on Netflix. None of his output in the 2020s feels like a genuine film. Most of the time, I skip over anything he’s involved in because I know I won’t enjoy it, or it just doesn’t seem appealing. But I thought maybe I was being too harsh. Maybe The Union (2024) would be the one I might like. You never know unless you give it a chance. Well, I gave it a chance, and I should’ve trusted my instincts.

It’s more or less the same formulaic Netflix action flick that adds almost nothing of value to the platform. There are maybe two interesting action set pieces in the film, but as an actual movie, these scenes don’t make up for the absurdity of the rest of the plot.

I’m usually intrigued by Wahlberg when his characters are portrayed with flaws, but it seems like he’s lost interest in playing those kinds of roles. Even though his character in this film has some unlikable qualities and room for growth, it doesn’t translate into a compelling flaw, and his personality doesn’t improve.

Additionally, the plot is mind-numbingly stupid. The stakes are supposed to be high, but there’s no real tension because you don’t care about the leads. What we’re left with is a visually unappealing movie with an unengaging story and characters that aren’t enjoyable to follow. The action isn’t terrible, but when nothing else in the film works, it doesn’t elevate the overall experience.

‘The Union (2024)’ Rating – 1.5/5

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