Matchbox: The Movie
Despite the Matchbox toy-car branding and the Mattel/Mattel Studios pedigree, this Apple TV+ action-comedy starring John Cena is firmly a grown-up spy thriller rated PG-13 for sustained action violence, gunfights, kidnappings, a nuclear-weapon plot, and frequent moderate-to-strong profanity. The toy-brand name is essentially cosmetic; the movie shares almost nothing in tone or content with the cars your child plays with on the living-room floor.
Teens 13 and up who enjoy big action films; not a match for younger children regardless of their love of Matchbox cars.
If you’d rather skip
The story begins with the death of a beloved mentor figure (Cal Smalley); his funeral is what reunites the friends, and a child's deceased mother is also referenced.
The friends drink heavily at a bar; their vodka shots are secretly spiked with a sedative, and they are kidnapped while unconscious.
Extended sequences of gunfights with pistols and assault rifles, hand-to-hand combat, high-speed car chases through city streets, vehicle crashes into buildings, and helicopter crashes with on-screen deaths; guns are fired repeatedly and characters are wounded.