PLAYING WITH FIRE: Hardly Fun Enough To Stay In Your Seat

In 2019, original family moves outside the Marvel universe are few and far between. As Marvel continues its domination of popular culture, smaller films have struggled to break through, especially those that aren’t animated, aren’t featuring A-listers, and don’t have superheroes. The newly released Andy Fickman film Playing with Fire fits into this category of films trying to survive the franchise boom of the decade.

Fickman’s film features a solid cast of recognizable faces, with wrestler-turned-actor John Cena portraying the lead character of Jake Carson, obliging his contract terms of being shirtless a minimum of three times in every film. Cena’s costars fill their necessary roles, with Keegan-Michael Key employing his funny faces, John Leguizamo being goofy yet lovable, and Judy Greer popping up as a love interest and nature aficionado. Sometimes though, talent cannot salvage a typical script and a plot that fails to progress past the idea stage.

Playing with Fire is far from awful, and it even features some tender, heartfelt moments. The child and teen actors fill up a little of the heart needed movies for kids, and the supporting cast around Cena give committed performances to the film. Everyone in the film does their best, but in 2019, it doesn’t make the cut.

Supporting Characters and Supportive Firemen

The supporting cast in Playing with Fire keep it afloat with light jokes and big smiles. Key and Leguizamo don’t look to be great at their job, but Cena makes up for it with brute force, while they cover his inability to draw a laugh. These firemen, along with Greer, provide the most amount of humor in the film, and the running joke of Leguizamo misquoting people is absolutely hilarious.

For what it’s worth, the kids in the film, Brianna Hildebrand, Christian Convery, and Finley Rose Slater, elevate the film from bad to watchable. Slater especially brings a cuteness that cannot be matched or rivaled. The culmination of the film and her birthday party just does not work without her infectious smile and her love for the My Little Pony universe. In fact, one of my favorite scenes in the film existed because of that birthday party, with the smoke jumpers raiding a local store to buy the kids as many presents as they can carry.

The filmmakers receive credit for attempting to make a happy story, one that features adoption, climate change adjacent themes, and the idea of makeshift families. Their hearts were in the right place, even if their scripts and direction didn’t do them any favors.

A Sketch Made Into A Movie

The film can hardly survive its nearly 100-minute runtime, and the jokes get recycled with an undesired effect. Though it has a big heart, Playing with Fire should have been a 30-minute short, or even better, a 5-minute sketch about burly firefighters who get stuck with children. The ideas never get fully developed and the final adoption twist is a foregone conclusion by the middle of the film. We know that a happy ending can be the only logical conclusion. There is no tug-of-war with the audience, and no real stakes or tension.

Cena struggles mightily for such a strong man, and his lack of comedic timing hurts the film at every turn. In this film at least, his character and his acting stray from likeable and endearing to frustrating and selfish. He redeems these flaws by the final wedding scene, but you cannot overlook his issues, especially with the rest of the cast comprised of more seasoned genre actors.

Each bit lasts five minutes instead of two, and you find yourself watching these men take 10 minutes to change a diaper, 10 minutes playing in a soapy room, and another 10 minutes telling one of the worst bedtime stories told in a family film. That might be harsh, but Cena hopefully will learn some new stories during the kids’ childhoods.

Conclusion: Playing with Fire

There is not anything inherently wrong about Playing with Fire. It’s possible that 20 years ago, it would have been a fine family comedy and would have made much more money. It lacks a big movie star and bigger laughs, and the script does not have the depth needed to pull off this film. There’s one thing for certain. You’ll stay in your seat, but you won’t be happy with the time you’ve spent in the theater.

Have you seen Playing with Fire? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below!

Playing with Fire was released in theaters in the US on November 8, 2019 and will be in UK theaters on December 26, 2019. For all international release dates, see here.