Synopsis
A crew of rugged firefighters meet their match when attempting to rescue three rambunctious kids.
Directed by Andy Fickman
Starring John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key and John Leguizamo.
Review
Seeing the trailer for this I was mildly excited, this sort of daft family humour holds a place in my heart and it looked like I was going to get another film to add to the "pick me up" watchlist. But oh my, everything about this experience rubbed me the wrong way.
Firstly, the Unlimited Screening was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon. Knowing that people try and go to the regular weekday screenings it felt like putting a family-friendly one on at a family-friendly time on a family-friendly day was a bad decision.
Secondly, when I arrived it was clear that it wasn't just an Unlimited Screening anymore and when I checked online it did indeed show that tickets were on sale to the general public. I would imagine that it was because there were only a couple of members booked in for it, it makes sense they would do this rather than annoy customers, but it annoyed me... and it's the principle of the thing really.
Thirdly, the film...
Jake Carson runs a rugged group of smokejumpers that swoop into action and stop fires from taking hold. On their latest callout they find a cabin about to be engulfed by flames and trapped inside are three children in need of help.
Following the rules, Jake calls Child Protective Services, but being so remote they won't be able to get to them quickly. It's now their duty to keep the three of them safe until they arrive. Four grown men, three kids... what could possibly go wrong?
Where to start? How about that humour I was looking forward to? Or perhaps the severe lack of it. Over the whole runtime I laughed more at the end credits that I did at the whole film. Keegan-Michael Key is by far the funniest thing about the film, but it still isn't a perfect part. Key's way of sliding into scenes and just taking over was excellent, it made me smile, but when these moments started he was funny with just the right amount of over the top but the script would quite often throw him over that fine line and it became tiresome.
John Cena generally isn't bad when it comes to comedy offerings, but in Playing With Fire he's very stiff even for the by-the-books character he's playing. It felt like Jake had been made too straight-laced, he needs to make the transition from uptight to more relaxed but they could have brought it down just one step and it would have been something a lot easier to watch.
Brianna Hildebrand plays the oldest of the rescued children, Brynn. She gives a solid performance and probably has the best character overall, no frustrating quirks, nothing over the top. While she manages to make a good show of it being up against the over the top nature of everything else means it gets lost in the background.
While there might be a twist on the sort of story it doesn't feel new in any respects. I'm feeling rather let down with the whole thing but thankfully we're not short of other films that do this exact thing.
Firstly, the Unlimited Screening was scheduled for a Saturday afternoon. Knowing that people try and go to the regular weekday screenings it felt like putting a family-friendly one on at a family-friendly time on a family-friendly day was a bad decision.
Secondly, when I arrived it was clear that it wasn't just an Unlimited Screening anymore and when I checked online it did indeed show that tickets were on sale to the general public. I would imagine that it was because there were only a couple of members booked in for it, it makes sense they would do this rather than annoy customers, but it annoyed me... and it's the principle of the thing really.
Thirdly, the film...
Jake Carson runs a rugged group of smokejumpers that swoop into action and stop fires from taking hold. On their latest callout they find a cabin about to be engulfed by flames and trapped inside are three children in need of help.
Following the rules, Jake calls Child Protective Services, but being so remote they won't be able to get to them quickly. It's now their duty to keep the three of them safe until they arrive. Four grown men, three kids... what could possibly go wrong?
Where to start? How about that humour I was looking forward to? Or perhaps the severe lack of it. Over the whole runtime I laughed more at the end credits that I did at the whole film. Keegan-Michael Key is by far the funniest thing about the film, but it still isn't a perfect part. Key's way of sliding into scenes and just taking over was excellent, it made me smile, but when these moments started he was funny with just the right amount of over the top but the script would quite often throw him over that fine line and it became tiresome.
John Cena generally isn't bad when it comes to comedy offerings, but in Playing With Fire he's very stiff even for the by-the-books character he's playing. It felt like Jake had been made too straight-laced, he needs to make the transition from uptight to more relaxed but they could have brought it down just one step and it would have been something a lot easier to watch.
Brianna Hildebrand plays the oldest of the rescued children, Brynn. She gives a solid performance and probably has the best character overall, no frustrating quirks, nothing over the top. While she manages to make a good show of it being up against the over the top nature of everything else means it gets lost in the background.
While there might be a twist on the sort of story it doesn't feel new in any respects. I'm feeling rather let down with the whole thing but thankfully we're not short of other films that do this exact thing.
What you should do
Absolutely do not bother with this, dig deep into the family films on streaming services instead.
Movie thing you wish you could take home
I would quite like to be able to clean up messes as quickly as they seem to in this film.
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