I want to start off by saying I’m a fan of much of the cast: John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, and of course, John Leguizamo. I went into this movie expecting something along the lines of The Pacifier, Kindergarten Cop, or maybe even The Toothfairy. These were movies that featured tough-guy personas, who had to learn how to abandon their bulletproof exterior, to ultimately save the day and grow as a character. Those movies were great because they were directed and acted well. And the script was good. Not spectacular, but good enough to keep you engaged.
Unfortunately, Playing With Fire, fails in all three categories: directing, acting, and writing. For some reason, it looked as though actors were trying too hard to make a horrible script good by overacting in almost every scene. There were a handful of laugh-out-loud funny scenes, but the storyline was just piss poor.
Comedy, even slapstick comedy, is rather intelligent. It’s honestly not stupid. Movies such as Airplane or Naked Gun are very intelligent scripts.
I would pass on this movie. It’s not worth the money. It would probably make a good late-night Netflix watch, but that’s about it. I can’t give it an F because I did laugh from time-to-time. But overall, I couldn’t wait till the pain was over.
GRADE: D
Steve Young
