The action will be great, and I’ll forgive the story. That’s been the deal with Sam Hargrave (Extraction) since his directing debut. Back in 2020, I stopped the first Extraction mid-viewing just to go back and watch its oner again. The 21-minute oner in Extraction 2 is still something I’d show anyone who wants to understand how stunts, camera, editing, and performances can work as a single piece. In both films, though, the scripts were generic and the characters forgettable. For whoever is unaware of this, long before he directed anything, Hargrave was the stunt coordinator on many Marvel films.
When it comes to the cast, John Cena keeps climbing in my book. Recently, Ricky Stanicky and Heads of State both worked for me largely because of him, and the way he’s learned to poke fun at his own image without turning every role into a wink has made him one of the more reliable presences in this kind of movie. So a Hargrave action comedy, led by Cena, with a Mattel toy brand attached, set my expectations pretty precisely: fun action, a thin story, a charming lead. And that’s what I got.
Back home, nobody has heard much from Sean Walker (Cena) in years. The friends he used to lead as a kid, Aimee (Jessica Biel, The Illusionist), Crosby (Sam Richardson, Hit Man), Ted (Arturo Castro, Alita: Battle Angel), and Charmaine (Teyonah Parris, If Beale Street Could Talk), stayed in their small town and grew up, still bonded by the afternoons they spent racing Matchbox cars together. What none of them know is that Sean now works undercover for the CIA. His return is supposed to be a simple reunion, but it quickly pulls the whole group into a frantic international chase they’re nowhere near prepared for, with a lot more than their friendship on the line.
So, yes. Matchbox The Movie is exactly the film you think it is. Formulaic, predictable, a by-the-numbers spy comedy where you can call most of the turns well before they arrive. It knows what it is, which helps. It also seems to know it’s never going to be anything other than fine, and it doesn’t try very hard to change that. I can live with that.
Where it does separate itself from the pile of generic action-comedy-spy mashups out there is the action because a lot of it is real. Hargrave shot on actual locations with practical stunts, and you feel it. It simply looks better. It’s easier to follow and more entertaining to watch when you know cars are actually slamming into each other on screen and not behind a giant blue screen, at least for the most part. A movie like this doesn’t need realism, and it isn’t realistic, but it never reaches the frustrating, annoying extremes of the Fast & Furious franchise either, and I’ll take that every time. The choreography is great, as expected from Hargrave, and the kinetic camera work and editing keep the fights and chases clear and energetic.
Cena does a lot of his own stunts and fight choreography, maybe even all of it, and that makes a real difference since the camera doesn’t have to hide who’s throwing the punches. He carries Matchbox The Movie just as well when nobody’s fighting. He’s getting better and better at being both the guy who can handle himself and the guy you’re happy to laugh at, and Sean’s deadpan has enough warmth underneath that his scenes with the group never feel like a star stepping down to share the screen.
It doesn’t look as visually unique as other Apple originals, though. This one falls into the generic, dull palette so many streaming releases share. The action also isn’t anywhere near the level of the Extraction flicks. Not even close. Nothing here made me want to rewind and watch a sequence twice, and that matters, because the runtime is way too long. Over two hours is a big ask for a story this basic and this surface-level, and when the set pieces aren’t crazy enough to keep you hooked until the very end, the last stretch drags.
What kept me with Matchbox The Movie is the group. I really like the casting, and the chemistry is on point. You believe these people actually grew up together. The character work doesn’t go far beyond the surface: everyone gets their own thing, a little childhood story, some small trauma or whatever it is, plus how those toy cars ended up being what brought them all together. It’s not deep. It works well enough to make me care about them just enough, which is honestly all this film needs. Richardson and Castro are the obvious comedic engines, Biel and Parris give the group a steadier center, and a supporting cast that includes Danai Gurira (The Visitor) and Corey Stoll (First Man) does what the plot asks of them. Their connection feels genuine, and I can relate to the idea of building friendships that last through toys, games, movies, whatever a group of kids happens to share. There are some fun chuckles along the way, and the tonal balance between the jokes and the stakes is decent.
Which brings me to the brand. Matchbox isn’t a big narrative deal here, and nobody should walk in expecting Barbie, which turned its doll into an existential crisis and a whole study of society, and became one of the very best films of its year. That was never going to happen with toy cars. But it’s not as if the brand means nothing. Cars flying through the air and crashing into each other is the obvious connection, and making those little vehicles the common element that built this friendship gives the name a reason to be there. I think they handled it about as well as they could.
The name itself is a different problem. Matchbox isn’t nearly as well known as other toy brands, and I’ll use myself as proof: there might be a few of these cars sitting at my parents’ house right now, and I still had no idea what the brand was called. I wonder if the title pushes some people away more than it pulls them in, and whether something more generic would have served it better. Hopefully, I’m wrong about that.
Final Thoughts on Matchbox The Movie
Matchbox The Movie is exactly the film I expected: a formulaic, predictable spy comedy that knows it’s never going to be more than fine. The practical, on-location action gives it a real edge over most of its genre. Sam Hargrave’s choreography and kinetic camera work are as solid as ever, and John Cena carries it with ease, doing his own stunts and getting better every time I see him. The cast has genuine chemistry, and even if the characters never go much beyond the surface, a friendship built around those little cars was easy for me to relate to. It’s way too long for something this basic, the action is nowhere near the director’s previous flicks, and the dull streaming look doesn’t help. Still, I had the right amount of fun with it. Not more, not less.
Rating: B-
Matchbox The Movie releases on Apple TV+ on October 9th.
Learn more about the film, including how to watch it, at the official website for the title.
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