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I find director Paul Feig is really only as good as the material and actors he is working with. In terms of what he brings to the mix I fear it’s just not enough without other talented people supporting what he does. That might seem like a harsh thing to say about a well respected filmmaker but I’ve levelled the same criticism at Ridley Scott so I have no compunction in firing it at Feig. After significant success in TV he became well known following the success of Bridesmaids but that movie, like his 2016 Ghostbusters film, works entirely because of stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy and even then is still a bit hit and miss. He’s had mixed results with McCarthy in The Heat and Spy as well but both of those started to show substantial cracks in his skill calling the shots. His best film is certainly A Simple Favor but again I think we can assume this is mostly down to actors Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick and sharp writing from Jessica Sharzer and Darcey Bell. The only consistent thing about his work is the tendency for too many laboured jokes, flawed comedy timing, mediocre action scenes, weak writing and misfiring satire and this movie might be his magnum opus because it has them all.

Even with the combined charisma of Awkwafina and John Cena this film is pretty bad. Together they make it watchable but they certainly don’t make it good. The set up is a near future world where they have made it so that the California lottery gives the public two opportunities to get the prize. The first as you’d expect involves someone being selected at random (but not it seems paying for a ticket) and the second comes where on the day of the winner being announced you are legally allowed to kill that person and claim the money for yourself. The first question that arises here is why? Is it to control the population, to make the person fight for their riches, is it to somehow control the people, is it for the public’s entertainment? Why? WHY? WHY? It kicks off the story well enough but it makes absolutely no sense and we are certainly never offered an answer. I don’t just mean a satisfactory answer, we are not given any answer at all. The idea is obviously designed to create a world where Awkwafina has to battle a lot of people but it also presents a whole load of plot holes and viewer frustration. Furthermore, while the initial winner and the subsequent victor are splashed all over the media it is apparently still somehow possible to get the money anonymously. Also, people can apparently kill in self defence as well but only when it is narratively useful.

This poor writing might be excusable if the action and the dialogue were better but of course they are not. There is some fun in seeing Cena, who is defending Awkwafina’s unfortunate ticket holder, beating lots of people up but it wears thin pretty quickly. There is an attempt to bring in some serious notes as well, pertaining to this duo’s backstories, but this is painful misjudged alongside the tone they have established for the rest of the movie. Then there is a cameo that probably thinks it is matching Bill Murray’s appearance in Zombieland but it lands more like Vanilla Ice in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II (which is incidentally a franchise that this film randomly pays regular homage to).

Perhaps this film will widely expose Paul Feig for the overrated filmmaker that for me he is. It is definitely his worst movie. He does have a Simple Favor sequel coming out next year, supported by the same cast and writer as before, but after this I’m nervous that he’s going to mess it up. He clearly has no eye for what makes a winner.