By Shane Conto
IT’S JOHN CENA!!! And a group of kids who end up in his care. When was the last time you were watching a trailer and thought “wow…this is so low brow that I cannot even stand it”? In all honesty, that is exactly what I thought when I saw the trailer for Playing with Fire. The jokes seemed super lame. The filmmaking looked straight off of a low budget TV show (especially coming from Nickelodeon). The worst of all was how much every character looked like an obnoxious caricature. For the first half of this film, that nightmare was fully realized. Within the first scene of the film, the performances were forced and over-the-top (in the worst way possible), the effects looked fake as hell, and the dialogue was atrocious. What was I doing there sitting in this theater? At least my expectations were met, right? The best I could say about this film is that Playing with Fire gets better from there.
This film really feels like two very distinct films. One of the main themes of the film revolves around John Cena’s character “letting his guard down”. And when he finally does, the audience can finally get something out of it! But let’s start with the consistent aspects of the film (which unfortunately are mostly the negatives). The direction of this film is extremely workman like and bland that I couldn’t really answer the question “what does an Andy Fickman film feel like”?
The film zips on by so quickly for the first half and the only reason that is a good thing is that it rushes through the worst of the film.
The dialogue as I mentioned before is not the greatest. Most of the jokes and running gags of the film are low brow and not funny (well at least to anyone above the age of five). The story is one that you have seen a thousand times and Playing with Fire doesn’t really do anything special with it.
One of the most frustrating parts of the film are the performances. I will admit that John Cena does deliver his best but most of his performance feels so tonally mismatched with the film that it feels jarring. Keegan-Michael Key wavers between obnoxious to the point of annoyance and genuinely clever. His energy at times feel like the great energy that made Key & Peele so special. John Leguizamo on the other hand just feels like he is forcing it the whole entire film and gives one of his worst performances I have seen from him. Judy Greer is…there. Tyler Mane gives an extremely weird performance as Ax, that large and silent muscle of the group. Some the choices made with the character are jarring and out of place. I will admit the child actors are endearing especially the adorable little girl.
You must be asking at this point “didn’t you say it got better”? Once Cena’s character opens up after learning some surprising news about the kids, the film becomes increasingly more endearing. The charm of their budding relationship is hard to deny at times and the chemistry between the cast is visible at that point. But was it worth the journey through the decidedly awful first half? Not really. That is really a shame when the film shows glimpses of hope. The generic story with the shallow themes cannot quite engage the whole audience. But you know what? I bet all the five-year-old viewers will get a hoot out of this one!