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Post by politicidal on Jul 18, 2019 14:50:26 GMT
It almost seems like Mark Wahlberg was the original casting choice but he said no. John Cena's hair looks just like Wahlberg.
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Post by poelzig on Jul 18, 2019 20:26:18 GMT
Cena is sort of a poor mans Mark Wahlberg with less acting skills and more steroids injected. They both even started their careers with half assed rapper gimmicks.
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Post by Vits on Apr 1, 2020 14:24:42 GMT
It's common for family movies to downplay the intensity of certain situations, but there's a believability limit. If you're that afraid of how young viewers will react, then take said situation out of the script. In PLAYING WITH FIRE, we see siblings Brynn, Will & Zoey in danger on 2 different occasions. Not only they look mildly scared during them, but there are also no shreds of trauma after they're saved by smokejumper Jake Carson. He and his colleagues Mark Rogers, Rodrigo Torres and Axe have to temporarily take care of them. You know the deal: The kids are chaotic and the adults get hurt. There's a moment early on where I thought "I think that this character isn't telling the truth, even though the movie isn't presenting it that way. That means the lie will be revealed as a plot twist in the last part of the movie." Was I right? Yes and no. The twist actually arrives at the halfway point. This is also the point where it becomes a completely different movie. The focus switches from the smokejumpers learning how to babysit to the 2Gen gang helping Jake in the dating world. It's definitely less painful to watch, but I can't forgive such inconsistency. Aside from being a bad way to structure a plot, one has to think about those that do enjoy seeing kids take over while adults suffer. They choose to watch a movie like this, but they only get half of what they wanted. They'll get bored once the slapstick gags cease. This 2nd half is also phony. The characters act like they've already bonded, even though they barely know each other and they've had nothing but unpleasant experiences together until this point. I don't understand how old the kids are supposed to be. Brynn is played by 23-year-old Brianna Hildebrand. OK, tons of actors in their 20s play teenagers, right? Well, high schoolers. Jake at first thinks Brynn is 8. I know it's a joke to show how little he knows about the subject, but even then it can only make sense if she's 13 tops. And Zoey is referred to as a baby, even though she's clearly not a 1-year-old. You might be thinking that she's a toddler and therefore "baby" is an approximation, but I can't even call her that. She wears pants and walks around on her own. Without getting into spoilers, both of them wear a certain outfit at one point and it matches. That's usually done with sisters when their age difference is supposed to be around 5 years. Suuuuure. Since the movie takes place in mostly 1 location (which isn't that big), you'd think that it would be easy for the adults to always keep the kids in sight, thereby preventing each (unfunny) disaster. They don't. In fact, there's a moment in the last part where they sneak out of a room and there's no explanation as to how none of the adults noticed. Andy Hickman's directing is bad and Dean Semler's cinematography is butt-ugly. Just look at the lighting and the weird camera angles. I can't believe I payed attention to such an insignificant detail, but it sticks out: Keegan-Michael Key is almost always standing behind John Cena. A couple of times it's on purpose (to make a joke where he pops up out of nowhere), but most of the time it's not. Read into that whichever way you want. The most prominent running gag is that Mark, Rodrigo and Axe end up liking MY LITTLE PONY. Scriptwriters Dan Ewen and Matt Lieberman are trying to prove that they know the difference between something that's only enjoyed by kids of a certain age like while kids of another age feel like they're passed that stage. They're encouraging viewers to laugh at these fictional grown men for liking something targeted at little girls... even though they exist in real life. From what I've read, they're actually a big fandom that stopped being mocked a while ago, since their love for the show is sincere and deep. This joke might've worked if said fandom had been acknowledged. Instead, these writers are showing that they're the grown men who should be laughed at (for being out-of-touch). The opening scene shows the smokejumpers in action... and Mark Ronson's UPTOWN FUNK is playing in the background. I know that placing songs in scenes that don't fit isn't rare, but it's usually a single that has been popular for less than a year. This one came out 5 years before this movie's release, so it doesn't even work as a pandering strategy. There's another scene where Jake is filling out an application online. Before he can finish it, he shows the kids where they'll sleep. We then see him going to sleep. The next morning, Brynn asks him about said job while looking at the computer. So he left it on all night? Wouldn't it have shut down automatically? Even if it was turned back on off-screen, would it show the same website? With the same fields already filled? Speaking of, when Jake wakes up, he hits his head on the bed above his and the whole bunk bed falls apart. Were there loose screws or something? Even so, how was he able to lie on it for several hours without nothing bad happening? 1/10 ------------------------------------- You can read comments of other movies in my blog. |
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Post by ck100 on Apr 1, 2020 15:13:45 GMT
Looks like another "muscle-bound guy has to work with and bond with kids" type of movie like Kindergarten Cop with Schwarzenegger and The Pacifier with Vin Diesel.
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Post by poelzig on Apr 1, 2020 21:17:49 GMT
It's common for family movies to downplay the intensity of certain situations, but there's a believability limit. If you're that afraid of how young viewers will react, then take said situation out of the script. In PLAYING WITH FIRE, we see siblings Brynn, Will & Zoey in danger on 2 different occasions. Not only they look mildly scared during them, but there are also no shreds of trauma after they're saved by smokejumper Jake Carson. He and his colleagues Mark Rogers, Rodrigo Torres and Axe have to temporarily take care of them. You know the deal: The kids are chaotic and the adults get hurt. There's a moment early on where I thought "I think that this character isn't telling the truth, even though the movie isn't presenting it that way. That means the lie will be revealed as a plot twist in the last part of the movie." Was I right? Yes and no. The twist actually arrives at the halfway point. This is also the point where it becomes a completely different movie. The focus switches from the smokejumpers learning how to babysit to the 2Gen gang helping Jake in the dating world. It's definitely less painful to watch, but I can't forgive such inconsistency. Aside from being a bad way to structure a plot, one has to think about those that do enjoy seeing kids take over while adults suffer. They choose to watch a movie like this, but they only get half of what they wanted. They'll get bored once the slapstick gags cease. This 2nd half is also phony. The characters act like they've already bonded, even though they barely know each other and they've had nothing but unpleasant experiences together until this point. I don't understand how old the kids are supposed to be. Brynn is played by 23-year-old Brianna Hildebrand. OK, tons of actors in their 20s play teenagers, right? Well, high schoolers. Jake at first thinks Brynn is 8. I know it's a joke to show how little he knows about the subject, but even then it can only make sense if she's 13 tops. And Zoey is referred to as a baby, even though she's clearly not a 1-year-old. You might be thinking that she's a toddler and therefore "baby" is an approximation, but I can't even call her that. She wears pants and walks around on her own. Without getting into spoilers, both of them wear a certain outfit at one point and it matches. That's usually done with sisters when their age difference is supposed to be around 5 years. Suuuuure. Since the movie takes place in mostly 1 location (which isn't that big), you'd think that it would be easy for the adults to always keep the kids in sight, thereby preventing each (unfunny) disaster. They don't. In fact, there's a moment in the last part where they sneak out of a room and there's no explanation as to how none of the adults noticed. Andy Hickman's directing is bad and Dean Semler's cinematography is butt-ugly. Just look at the lighting and the weird camera angles. I can't believe I payed attention to such an insignificant detail, but it sticks out: Keegan-Michael Key is almost always standing behind John Cena. A couple of times it's on purpose (to make a joke where he pops up out of nowhere), but most of the time it's not. Read into that whichever way you want. The most prominent running gag is that Mark, Rodrigo and Axe end up liking MY LITTLE PONY. Scriptwriters Dan Ewen and Matt Lieberman are trying to prove that they know the difference between something that's only enjoyed by kids of a certain age like while kids of another age feel like they're passed that stage. They're encouraging viewers to laugh at these fictional grown men for liking something targeted at little girls... even though they exist in real life. From what I've read, they're actually a big fandom that stopped being mocked a while ago, since their love for the show is sincere and deep. This joke might've worked if said fandom had been acknowledged. Instead, these writers are showing that they're the grown men who should be laughed at (for being out-of-touch). The opening scene shows the smokejumpers in action... and Mark Ronson's UPTOWN FUNK is playing in the background. I know that placing songs in scenes that don't fit isn't rare, but it's usually a single that has been popular for less than a year. This one came out 5 years before this movie's release, so it doesn't even work as a pandering strategy. There's another scene where Jake is filling out an application online. Before he can finish it, he shows the kids where they'll sleep. We then see him going to sleep. The next morning, Brynn asks him about said job while looking at the computer. So he left it on all night? Wouldn't it have shut down automatically? Even if it was turned back on off-screen, would it show the same website? With the same fields already filled? Speaking of, when Jake wakes up, he hits his head on the bed above his and the whole bunk bed falls apart. Were there loose screws or something? Even so, how was he able to lie on it for several hours without nothing bad happening? 1/10 ------------------------------------- You can read comments of other movies in my blog.They don't have paragraphs in Yugoslavia or wherever you're from?
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Post by Vits on Apr 1, 2020 21:37:28 GMT
They don't have paragraphs in Yugoslavia or wherever you're from? That's funny, coming from the guy with a German name.
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