Playing with Fire is a 2019 American family comedy film directed by Andy Fickman from a screenplay by Dan Ewen and Matt Lieberman based on a story by Ewen. The film stars John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo, Brianna Hildebrand, Dennis Haysbert, and Judy Greer. It tells the story of a group of smokejumpers who must watch over three children who they rescued from a burning cabin until child services arrive.
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 No greater honor for a Smoke Jumper than burning to a crisp!
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The film was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on November 8, 2019, in the United States.
It is the third Walden Media film to be produced by Nickelodeon Movies after Charlotte's Web and Dora and the Lost City of Gold (the latter was also released in 2019).
The film grossed $68 million worldwide with a budget of $29 million, and received mostly negative reviews from critics.
Plot
Superintendent Jake Carson is the commanding officer of a group of smokejumpers in the remote California woodlands. Carson is capable in a crisis and takes tremendous pride in his work, diving into dangerous situations to rescue civilians alongside his team Mark Rogers, Rodrigo Torres, and "Axe".
After rescuing three children from a burning cabin, Carson is contacted by Division Commander Richards. Richards praises his work and shortlists him to be his replacement, Carson's dream job.
Rogers warns Carson they are responsible for the children's welfare (15-year-old Brynn, 10-year-old Will, and 3-year-old (later 4-year-old) Zoey) under the "Safe Haven Laws", requiring law enforcement and first responders to care for children until they are released to a parent or guardian. He leaves a voicemail for the children's mother who texts back saying that they are on their way. Carson's attempts to complete his application for division commander are undermined by the children running haywire around the station, and the arrival of his ex, local environmentalist Dr. Amy Hicks who protests the smokejumpers taking water from endangered toad habitats to fight fires. She refuses Carson's attempt to offload the children onto her.
Despite the mayhem, the rest of the smokejumpers begin to bond with the children: toddler Zoey warms up to the brutish Axe and Torres teaches Will how to navigate dangerous situations. Brynn pays lip service to Rogers' admiration of Carson, then stages an escape on the station's ATV, spilling oil and slashing tires to prevent chase. Carson catches them by off-roading on a little girl's bike, cornering the children on a dirt road.
Will prompts Brynn to admit they are orphans on the run from foster care, avoiding their separation. The text messages were from Brynn herself. The group camp out overnight and Carson promises to hold off calling Child Services until after Zoey's 4th birthday in two days.
The group go all out preparing Zoey's birthday, and the four smokejumpers buy presents for Brynn and Will as well. Carson then tells Will a bedtime story about a yeti who was married to his job, had a son and then died on the job because he was distracted by having a family. Brynn and Hicks are both touched by the thinly veiled story of Carson's life. The overboard birthday party is interrupted by the unexpected arrival of both Richards and Child Services. The children flee in Richards' car, running it off the road right on a cliff. Brynn gets trapped in her seat belt. Carson parachutes down to rescue them and with Will's help, he frees Brynn before the car rolls off the cliff.
Back at the station, Hicks and the other smokejumpers bid an emotional farewell to the children. Richards tells Carson that family can be a source of support and that there is more to life than working. Inspired, Carson refuses to release the children to Child Services under the Safe Haven laws and proposes a plan to adopt all three.
Sometime later, Carson and Hicks get married with the smokejumpers and their adopted children in attendance.
Why It's Definitely 0% Contained
- It's one of these movies that wants to be funny, but even if it's a comedy, this movie is only made so Nickelodeon can get a cheap laugh out of the audience on any joke that counts as unfunny, repetitive, or stupid.
- Some moments make no sense. For example, when the dog comes to get the kids, the young girl somehow trains her, which is confusing.
- Terrible acting, even from experienced actors such as Judy Greer and John Cena, the latter of whom does an awful job in this movie, as he just acts as if he wasn't trying and acts in the movie as if he is not interested in this film despite enjoying his job. Most of the actors in this movie are just not even trying, except John Leguizamo, who seems to be trying way too hard.
- Major nitpick: It’s never explained how the children’s parents went missing, as the plot forgets about it later. They never end up reuniting with their original parents for an unexplained reason, which is also messed up.
- Out of all the characters in this movie, Zoey is the most obnoxious. Not only is she an unlikable, whiny little child meant to amp up the 'aw factor', but her trait is screaming and crying over the smallest things at an ear-grating loud volume. And it goes on for an entire minute. It also happens multiple times throughout the whole movie. Zoey is also supposed to be 3 years old and is STILL not potty trained for an unknown reason. She should’ve been potty trained at her age. There’s no explanation for why she’s not potty trained. It’s just there.
- Laughable and paper-thin plot, with many characters thrown in that do nothing to the story.
- The humor and jokes are mostly not funny because most of the jokes are either disgusting (like the on-screen pooping scene), frustrating, inappropriate, stupid, repetitive, or are as well as not only cringe-worthy but are just thought of for the movie to only get a cheap laugh out of the audience.
- The My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic references are so shoehorned, and there is product placement, if not worse than The Emoji Movie. It is also shameless to the point where you can see a Pinkie Pie sticker on the opening logo. There's even one scene where Axe, one of the firefighters, sings the show's theme song in an operatic voice to Zoey, which is just spine-chilling, and the zoomed-in shots on the characters' faces don't help matters. This was pandering to people whether they liked the show or not.
- In fact, the My Little Pony franchise is owned by Hasbro, with the US home entertainment and film rights currently being owned by Lionsgate as opposed to Paramount Global (the parent company of Paramount Pictures, the distributor of this movie), thereby making the references feel completely out of place in a Nickelodeon property. Adding insult to injury, that show had already ended its ninth (and final) season on October 12, 2019, while this film came out a month later, making the references even more pointless than ever. This could also count as wrong timing as well.
- There is a scene in which Zoey poops on Supe's face. This is not only disgusting, but the angle at which the scene is shot makes it look like Supe's head exploded, which is thankfully not the case if you understand what is supposed to be happening.
- This movie shows Nickelodeon is trying too hard to be hip and cool nowadays. They've done it before back then, and most of the time, it works. But nowadays, when they add pop culture references in the most poorly executed way or add something they think is "cool, hip, edgy, and modern", it comes off as either cringe-worthy or a big pile of annoyance.
- The running gags get very old to the point they become repetitive, stale, and not funny anymore.
- From what was said about WIS #5, the running gag where Zoey screams and cries for no reason with only Supe (played by John Cena) to calm her down. It may not be a funny joke, but it gets very old quickly.
- The movie can barely go 5 minutes without shoving Keegan-Michael Key into the scene, as he constantly hijacks the scene. Plus, with all the constant mugging, he'll get annoying quickly.
- Poor special effects that look fake and unrealistic. This is especially odd since they come from Industrial Light & Magic.
- The movie ends with the family doing the floss move and other "Fortnite dances", which makes the movie more dated.
- An infamous feminist preach, where Supe's love interest assumes that he wants her to look after the children in the fire department because "she is a woman". However, this is retconned when Supe tells her later that he wants her to babysit the children because he wants to go to the shop with his employers to set up Zoey's birthday party before it's too late and not because she is a woman.
- At the start of the movie, when it shows its title, the CGI looks worse than the 90s CGI animated movies. Even Toy Story despite being a 90s CGI film, looks better than this. Hell, even Morris Has a Cold, a 90s stop-motion short with a CGI segment, had better CGI than this!
- The story is so clichéd and it's not even funny.
- Pointless reference to the far superior firefighter film Backdraft (which is a firefighter film that is rated R and not for kids) where one character says "You go! I go!".
- Aside from the My Little Pony references, there are more product placements that include iPhone products.
- The film has no stakes whatsoever since the characters often talk while they're surrounded by fire.
- Weak direction by Andy Fickman. Mind you, he already directed some crappy movies to begin with, such as Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, You Again, Parental Guidance, and One True Loves.
- The pacing is very poor. It's so poor that it gets dull quickly.
Redeeming Qualities
- Some decently funny moments such as the Darth Vader reference in the movie's end as an outtake.
- The ending isn’t too bad despite the one part where the family does outdated dances.
- Brynn is one of the few likeable characters in the movie throughout.
- The action is decent despite the lack of stakes.
- Great music by Nathan Wang.
Reception
Playing With Fire received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and audiences, who criticized it as annoying and unpleasant.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 24% based on 75 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The consensus reads, "Playing with Fire, sadly, is incinerated by the catastrophic inferno of its own sickening existence." However, as of now, the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is absent.
Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 24 out of 100, based on 14 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews.".
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed at PostTrak gave it an average 2.5 out of 5 stars.
Box Office
The film opened up at #3 on its opening weekend grossing $12,723,781 domestically. The film made a total domestic gross of $44,451,847. In foreign territories, it made $24,960,578. Overall, the film made a worldwide gross of $69,412,425 against its $29 million budget.