Starring: John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo. Tyler Mane, Brianna Hildebrand, Christian Convery, Finley Rose Slater, Judy Greer
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Runtime: 96 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2019
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This American family comedy tells the story of a group of rugged firefighters who have to look after three children they rescue from a fire. The children were trapped in a wood cabin by a fire raging through a Northern Californian forest.
Fire superintendent, Jake Carson (John Cena) heads up an elite team of firefighters (Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo, and Tyler Mane) and they rescue three siblings (Brianna Hildebrand, Christian Convery, and Finley Rose Slater) caught in the path of the fire.
The children find themselves trapped in their cabin with a forest fire about to engulf them. After rescuing the children, the firefighters are unable to find the children’s parents, and an approaching storm prevents them taking the children to a nearby hospital. The children report that their parents are away for the night, and until they can be found, the firefighters have to assume parental control – with predictable results. The film is heavily male-centric, with a strong sub-theme of romance between Jake and local female scientist, Dr. Amy Hicks (Judy Greer).
The children prove difficult to control and wreak havoc at the fire station. They wreck the firemen’s equipment, and try the firefighters’ patience over a very long weekend. Most of the jokes, however, are delivered by the adults trying to cope, and some of the humour is quite crude. The film is slapstick comedy that works erratically, and the film’s scripting is loose.
Slapstick incidents are mostly caused by the children as when a birthday cake accidentally becomes a raging inferno, and a nail gun is fired by mistake inside the station. There is heavy reliance on sight gags, and strong appeal made to cliched situations, as when one of the children feels compelled to watch a firefighter trying to go to the toilet.
Eventually, Child Protective Services turns up to take the three children away, and Jake finds himself caught between wanting to protect the children further, and trying to earn himself a promotion in the eyes of his superior officer.
The film talks down to children and leaves little for parents to relate to, and does not accord a great deal of competency to Californian firefighters, which seems a harsh judgement. However, despite the broad slapstick, and the crudity, the comedy’s heart is in the right place. The adult firefighters are made to look physically able, but they are painted as hapless and helpless babysitters. However, they stand their ground and do what they can to look after their charges. The film genuinely values the heroism of firefighters and has a few serious messages to communicate about responsible parenting – nobody thinks the children should have been left in the cabin by themselves, and there is an explanation of that.
At the start of the movie, Jake looks tough, insensitive, and over-conscientious, but as the movie develops under the pressure of forces against him, his character warms, and his personality softens. Eventually, romance blossoms, and he becomes a father figure to the children, despite the fact he fears his promotion will be in jeopardy. Also, the film overall has an adoption-friendly focus that softens the obviousness of its broad humour.
This is a movie with a good heart, that some, but not all parents will enjoy, and this could be in the presence of their children who are likely to have the same reaction.
The film is heavily sentimental and cliched, but the cast works hard to infuse the material with laughs that now and again come. However, it is a well intentional comedy that misses, and trades on sentimentality, despite its good intentions to reinforce “group (and family) togetherness”.
Peter W. Sheehan is Associate of the Australian Catholic Office for Film and Broadcasting
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