You can imagine the pep talk in Mattel’s marketing division in 2023: “‘Barbie’ was a big hit! What’s the next toy we can create a movie around?” Apparently, someone answered, “Matchbox cars!” Even though Barbie is a cultural icon and the Matchbox cars are just…cars. They don’t even have voices, personalities, or backstories like the Transformers, let alone full characters like the Pixar “Cars” movies. Nevertheless, we now have a Matchbox movie, and you know what? Thanks to a powerhouse cast, a director who did stunts in “Avengers” movies, excellent cinematography from Pedro Luque, and editing by Dirk Westervelt, it’s quite fun.
The set-up, if not classic, is familiar. Childhood friends reunite to carry their past history into adult chaos involving 2/3 stunts, 1/3 comedy, and sprinkles of heart, nostalgia, and romance. The one who’s had no time for life outside of work realizes what he’s missed, and the ones who have been in a rut get revitalized and realize how much they enjoy adventure. There is an unsurprising surprise betrayal, hopping around to various locations, and, as is pretty much required in movies like this, a chase scene through an open market and a scene where everyone has to dress up in gowns and tuxes that somehow just appear.
A brief flashback to 1998 introduces us to The Matchbox Gang, five middle school friends living in a small Ohio town. Kindly car mechanic Mr. Smalley (Bill Camp) gives them a place to play with their small cars, planes, trucks, and helicopters, and he makes them feel safe and appreciated. He also delivers some non-tedious exposition, including the sweet origin story of Matchbox cars. Sean has a crush on Aimee and is about to give her the Matchbox car she’s been dreaming of: the blue Limited Edition Super Camaro. But when the moment comes, he hesitates, then has to move to Chicago and never gets another chance.
Sean’s dejected toss of the little blue car cuts to a full-size car flipping around in the midst of a desert high-speed chase scene 28 years later. Sean (John Cena) is at the wheel, and people are shooting at him. He’s intermittently on the phone with his CIA contact, Helen (Danai Gurira). And he’s coming in hot, delivering a nuclear warhead he took from one criminal to deliver to another.
Mission completed, and Helen tells him to lie low for a while. But a funeral brings him back to Ohio, where he meets up with the old Matchbox gang, each attached to a real-life version of their favorite childhood Matchbox vehicle. Ted (Arturo Castro) is now a high school science teacher, and he and his husband have three children. Crosby (Sam Richardson), very attached to his Leatherman multi-tool, operates earth movers and other heavy machinery and is now married to Charmaine (Teyonah Parris), who flies a traffic report helicopter. And Aimee (Jessica Biel) is now an EMT who drives an ambulance, but her hobby is driving a race car with Matchbox as one of its sponsors. All of those skills will come in handy. The group has a brief, bittersweet reunion, and then they are drugged and wake up on a plane, prisoners of some people who are torturing Sean.
After that, it is mostly about the stunts, and they are terrific, more than good enough to hold up in theaters as a summer chases and explosions movie. More than once, as a box truck hurtles through a chase, the back doors fly open with characters inside. A couple of characters are set on fire. The movie has nifty stunts, including Sean sliding backward down a staircase, shooting guns for propulsion, jumping off a building, swinging on a fire hose, hanging off things, falling off things, and hiding under a speeding truck. Plus, a lot of shooting.
The dialogue is just serviceable, with a few references to other movies (“Casino,” “Terminator,” “Scarface”) to remind us that we’re watching a movie about characters who watch movies. But the top-notch cast understands the assignment and always hits exactly the right tone, not taking it too seriously but bringing sincerity and verve even to lines like “I work alone.” “Not anymore.” The supporting cast, including the always-great Camp, has two more greats playing characters with shifting allegiances: Golshifteh Farahani as a sinuous weapons dealer and Corey Stoll, whose character I will not spoil.
In the middle of an action scene, the film cuts to a child sitting at a table in an outdoor café, quietly playing with Matchbox cars. He looks up to see the chasing vehicles and seems to wonder whether he somehow manifested what he was pretending in real life. The film aims to bring to life the imagination a child brings to his toys, and it delivers with a welcome spirit and even a little sweetness.
