Best performance in Playing With Fire comes from the dog
The one face you’ll recognise in this maddeningly middle of the road family comedy is John Cena, who is settling for accepting the kind of roles Dwayne Johnson can now comfortably turn down. But it’s the dog who steals the so-so show.
New Movies
Don't miss out on the headlines from New Movies. Followed categories will be added to My News.
At one of the more contemplative junctures in Playing With Fire – no, make that the only one – a minor player in proceedings has cause to observe the following about children of the modern era.
“Kids are like fires,” she states with less-than-convincing authority on the subject. “You can’t control them. You just have to contain them until they burn themselves out.”
It would have been instructive to learn if she prefers a high-velocity hose or a foam extinguisher when kids are really acting up. Sadly, that’s all we end up getting when it comes to parenting tips.
Not that Playing With Fire is the kind of movie you should be looking for any guidance from. For it looks to have been made without any common sense whatsoever.
Here are the scripting schematics for what, at best, is a stridently so-so family comedy.
Four overly burly, semi-surly smoke jumpers. Three overly rambunctious, semi-adorable children. An unforeseen period during which the quartet of blokes must provide food, lodging and care to the trifecta of tykes.
There will be stuff getting broken. Stuff set alight. Adults falling over. Hard. Adults suffering clonks to the head, upper body, and tender areas adjacent to the groin. Very hard.
Poop. A lot of it. In one scene, very liquefied. Kids causing mayhem. Very mischievously. Often, very annoyingly.
READ MORE:
BLACK CHRISTMAS NO WITLLESS HACK-EM-UP
ADDAMS FAMILY CREEPY, KOOKY AND CRAP
TWO POPES TARGETS YOUR HEAD AND HEART
Oh, and there will be many cutaways to a dog, who just might be the only actor contributing a consistent, mildly amusing performance to this maddeningly middling motion picture.
The one face some film goers will recognise is that of ex-wrestler John Cena, now settling in for a career accepting the kind of roles another ex-wrestler, Dwayne Johnson, can now comfortably turn down.
Cena has been an amusing-ish factor as a supporting player in adult comedies such as Blockers and Trainwreck. However, he never quite cuts it here as a leading funnyman, playing an all-work-no-idea fireman in a perpetual state of parental panic.
Overall, Playing With Fire is relentlessly busy, intermittently loud, and never quite the sunny smile factory its makers assume it to be.
PLAYING WITH FIRE (PG)
Director: Andy Fickman (Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2)
Starring: John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo, Brianna Hildebrand.
Rating: **
Flaming average