The creators of “Playing With Fire,” a clodhopping comedy about California wildfire “smoke jumpers,” built in little pauses after many of the film’s sight gags and verbal jokes, presumably to accommodate audience laughter. Bad idea.
If the movie were showing at a drive-in, the only sound during those pauses would be crickets chirping. Inside a theater, only a few kids’ fleeting giggles — and the crunching of popcorn — fill the void.
With horrific wildfires scorching California, the timing of this firefighter comedy also seems off. It might inspire empathy, if only it were actually funny.
Director Andy Fickman has multiple TV credits as a producer and director, including the series “Kevin Can Wait.” But if you want an indication of his talents on the big screen, look no further than “Parental Guidance” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2.” In those ill-conceived farces, Fickman demonstrated a blunderbuss approach to comedy that lingers here like a dull ache. Nor is he helped by screenwriters Dan Ewen and Matt Lieberman, whose cut-and-paste style of screenwriting bristles with narrative hiccups and continuity errors.