Critics have not been particularly kind to Matchbox: The Movie, but sometimes I think we make this more complicated than it needs to be. This is a movie based on tiny metal cars starring John Cena and directed by the guy who made Extraction. There will be cars. They will crash into things. John Cena will probably hang from something. Luckily, director Sam Hargrave seems completely aware of the assignment. Matchbox: The Movie is ridiculous, energetic and surprisingly well suited to families with older kids looking for a gateway into big action movies.
5 Reasons to Watch Matchbox: The Movie
#5: It Figures Out How to Make a Movie About Matchbox Cars
Making a movie based on Transformers makes sense. You've got Optimus Prime, Megatron, Autobots and Decepticons. G.I. Joe has Cobra. Masters of the Universe has He-Man and Skeletor.
Matchbox has…small metal cars.
There’s no massive mythology to adapt, so Matchbox: The Movie does something smarter. It adapts what kids actually did with those cars.
John Cena plays Sean Walker, who grew up with a group of neighborhood friends calling themselves the Matchbox Gang. Sean eventually became a CIA agent while Crosby, Charmaine, Ted and Aimee went on with their own lives. When the friends reunite back home, Sean's CIA problems follow him and suddenly the Matchbox Gang is dealing with government agents, arms dealers, helicopters, a missing nuclear weapon and a whole lot of cars. It has the storytelling logic of something you would have invented on your bedroom floor when you were nine years old, which feels strangely appropriate.
If you enjoy seeing Hollywood figure out how to turn unlikely properties like Barbie, The Lego Movie, Battleship or even Tetris into actual movies, this is an interesting addition to the experiment.
#4: The Cast Knows Exactly What Movie They're In
One of the reasons this works as well as it does is that nobody appears confused about what they're making.
John Cena is particularly good at this kind of comedy because he's perfectly willing to let the enormous action hero be the butt of the joke. He's a giant human being who looks completely believable punching somebody through a wall, but he's also willing to look incredibly stupid five seconds later. Sam Richardson continues to have an almost supernatural ability to make confusion funny. Arturo Castro plays a science teacher who gets some of my favorite comedy in the movie, including a disastrous attempt with a Molotov cocktail, but he also gets one surprisingly emotional moment. Teyonah Parris gets to be extremely capable while Jessica Biel carries much of the movie's emotional center and gets plenty of physical action herself. Then you've got Daniel Bernhardt, one of those actors whose appearance immediately tells me somebody is about to get punched.
For a movie based on tiny toy cars, this is an absurdly good ensemble.
#3: The Fights Actually Feel Like Fights
This is where hiring Sam Hargrave pays off.
Before directing Extraction and Extraction 2, Hargrave spent years working as a stunt performer and coordinator, including doubling Chris Evans as Captain America. He understands how to stage physical action so that you can actually see what's happening.
Cena gets several substantial fights here. The interesting part is that Hargrave still gives those fights impact despite working within a PG-13 movie. People get thrown through things. Bodies hit the ground hard. Cena looks like an enormous man hitting other enormous men, but it never crosses into the kind of bloody violence that immediately takes the movie off the table for families.
If you have slightly older kids who are interested in action movies but aren't ready for something like John Wick, this sits closer to movies like Shanghai Noon, National Treasure or the Mission: Impossible series.
#2: The Cars Actually Feel Physical
At minimum, a movie called Matchbox needs good car chases. Fortunately, Sam Hargrave understood that.
Within the first few minutes we've already got a car flipping through the air and things barely slow down from there. Cars jump, crash, race through narrow streets and go flying off things that cars probably shouldn't be flying off of. More importantly, a lot of it feels real.
Hargrave has spoken about wanting actual people driving actual vehicles and performing actual stunts. John Cena has even talked about how many duplicate cars were needed because pushing them this hard meant they constantly broke during production. Jessica Biel trained in performance driving and performed portions of the driving herself. You can feel that physicality. It's obviously not Ronin or Bullitt, but it also doesn't feel like somebody dragged a digital car around a computer screen for two hours.
The huge highway sequence is probably the closest the movie gets to Fast & Furious, complete with every member of the group eventually getting their own little hero moment.
#1: It's a Big Action Movie You Can Watch With Older Kids
This was probably my biggest takeaway.
Not every movie needs to fundamentally alter your understanding of the human condition. Sometimes you want to watch John Cena hanging from something while cars explode underneath him.
Matchbox: The Movie feels like a Saturday morning cartoon that somebody gave a modern blockbuster budget.
You've got childhood friends, CIA conspiracies, exotic locations, helicopters, car chases, romance, comedy and nuclear weapons. You don't need to know anything about Matchbox. You don't need to remember six previous movies. You don't need to watch a television series before hitting play. It also fills a useful gap because there comes a point when kids start aging out of movies made specifically for children, but plenty of R-rated action movies are still a little much. Matchbox gives them something that feels like a grown-up action movie without getting particularly bloody or mean. Apple rates the film PG-13 for sequences of violence/action and language.
No, this isn't high art. The plot is ridiculous, but so were the plots you invented while smashing toy cars together when you were a kid…and maybe that's exactly the point.
Who Should Watch Matchbox: The Movie?
This is an easy recommendation for viewers who like uncomplicated action comedies, John Cena, practical car stunts or old-school adventure movies. I especially think it works for families with older kids looking for something that feels more grown-up without jumping directly into hard-R action.
If the phrase “movie based on a Mattel toy line” immediately causes an allergic reaction, I don't know that this will convert you. But if you miss the kind of action movie where a ridiculous plot primarily exists to move everybody toward the next stunt, give it a shot.
Prefer to Listen?
You can also listen to this Force Five recommendation as a podcast episode.
Where to Watch
Matchbox: The Movie is streaming exclusively on Apple TV.
Top 5 Radar
Top 5 Movies Based on Toys: Matchbox: The Movie could easily find itself alongside Barbie, The Lego Movie, Transformers and G.I. Joe. What makes this one particularly interesting is that the filmmakers had virtually no characters or mythology to adapt. They had to adapt the experience of playing with the toys instead.
Top 5 Family-Friendly Car Chases: There are much crazier car chases in movie history, but finding great vehicle action you can comfortably introduce to older kids narrows the field considerably. Matchbox belongs in that discussion.
More Force Five
F9: The Fast Saga
If the combination of John Cena, ridiculous vehicle action and blockbuster silliness worked for you in Matchbox: The Movie, check out Force Five’s review of F9: The Fast Saga. It takes the cars, Cena and questionable understanding of physics several steps further, making it a natural double feature for anyone who likes their action enormous and unapologetically goofy.
Nobody
If Sam Hargrave’s emphasis on physical stunt work was the main attraction, Nobody offers a much harder-edged version of that appeal. It is considerably more violent than Matchbox, but its brutal fights, practical action and memorable car chase make it a great next stop for action fans.
The Hidden
For something older and much stranger, The Hidden combines fast cars, science fiction and a wonderfully absurd premise into one of the most entertaining genre movies of the late 1980s. Like Matchbox, it understands that sometimes the best thing an action movie can do is move quickly, embrace the ridiculous and make sure the audience is having fun.
