Game NightCompetition gets the best of some people. Take Max Davis (Max Davis), who--along with his wife, Annie (Rachel McAdams)--host a regular "game night" with some of their friends, while excluding their neighbor, a cop named Gary Kingsbury (Jesse Plemons). On one such occasion, Max's highly successful brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), crashes their game night, and offers to host one of his own, not missing the opportunity to upstage Max in the process. The game: someone will be "kidnapped", and the players must rescue the victim. Meanwhile, Brooks' past catches up to him, and the "game" suddenly becomes all too real.
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Game Night is a comedy that follows a familiar (but generally effective) formula to achieve its goal, which is to make you laugh. It is filled with caricatures of familiar people played by charismatic actors. These roles typically play to the actors' strengths, or even highlight their versatility--as is the case with Bateman and McAdams, respectively. Jokes come rapid fire and from all angles, of varying content and quality (with varying degrees of success), and the plot is ultimately just a vehicle for the humor. So in this, Game Night doesn't innovate, but becomes more like "comfort food", as is consistent with these kinds of comedies. Going off of that metaphor, Game Night would probably be best compared to a carb binge, like eating a whole pizza by yourself and chasing it with a bag of Doritos; caution: you might get a little queasy. To explain that (admittedly) awkward comparison, Game Night moves with a speed that is actually a little bit dizzying. (You might find yourself checking to see that you didn't accidentally set the movie to play at high speed.) Character development is, by design, virtually nil. To its credit, Game Night already has too many balls in the air--that is, it is constantly juggling to keep our attention--so this is actually a good thing. To sum up the backstory, Max meets Annie at a bar trivia contest, and they fall in love because...they both like trivia? To be honest, they are both kind of self-absorbed, yuppie stereotypes...and so are their game night friends. This casting turns the everyday "game night" many people enjoy to escape from the problems of the week into something that looks a little too much like a modeling shoot for J. Crew, as all of the participants are beautiful--if altogether vapid--people. If you forget the names of the other players, you'd be forgiven. There's the dopey Ryan (Billy Magnussen, who delivers a turn right out of Damsels in Distress), who always brings a different woman to the get together as a "ringer". For these current festivities, it is Sarah Darcy (Sharon Horgan), a coworker from Ireland, so of course Ryan keeps assuming she's British because...he's the dumb one. And there's Kevin Sterling (Lamorne Morris), and his wife, Michelle (Kylie Bunbury), who harp on way too long about some actor Michelle presumably slept with while they were still dating. The six of them team up (with their respective partners) to win the game, because Brooks has put a vintage sports car up as the prize, because...he's the rich one. And when it turns out that Brooks is actually kidnapped, cue predictable (if nevertheless still funny) scenarios of miscommunication where the players believe that despite the danger, it's all "just a game". (Reminds me a lot of The Man Who Knew Too Little.)
Comedies like Game Night excel at giving audiences looking for a machine gun barrage of quips, awkward scenarios, and outlandish situations a warm welcome. There is an overabundance of ridiculous events and twists and turns that keep even the most attention deficit stricken types away from their cell phones. (Heaven help you if even this blitz of jokes and zaniness can't do it for you!) A familiar-as-a-worn-glove such example is when Max and company go to Gary's house under the pretense of playing a game of Jenga, so that Max can sneak into his computer room to access the police database and determine the identity and residence of one of the criminals Brooks has been dealing with. (Yes, that was a lot.) Previously, Max got shot (by Annie...another long story), and his wound is bleeding through his shirt, profusely! (Really, that Max hasn't passed out by now requires that you suspend your disbelief to the extreme, but I digress.) Anyway, Gary has a white Bichon Frisé (or something resembling one), and wouldn't you know it? Gary discovers that he's bled all over the dog! What to do?! Well, Gary tries wiping it off with a damp towel, totally covering the dog in blood instead! Oh no! Even worse! The dog shakes--or Gary shakes the towel, I don't know, the movie didn't feel like slowing down to make it clear--so blood splatters all over the room, including on a shrine that Gary keeps of his dead wife, Debbie (who was the only reason why Gary used to game with Max and Annie...because he's the weird one). These kinds of outrageous situations are the lock, stock, and trade of Game Night, and are generally pretty effective. Each twist in the story feels like it emerged from a "so crazy, we've gotta do it" mindset. But since plot doesn't just take a back seat in Game Night, it gets locked in the trunk, who cares? That said, part of what helps the jokes in Game Night land is when these twists and turns in the plot spring forth, sometimes foreshadowed only in the most minor of ways. At times, Game Night wants to be a lot more than just a wacky story about feuding brothers, in vitro complications due to insecurity complexes, celebrity impersonator hookups, and fight clubs. It wants to be an action movie, and it's got a few moments peppered in to fulfill that desire. Just keep in mind that as long as you check your expectations about the movie being essentially a two-hour laugh factory and not more than that, you'll have a good time.
Recommended for: Fans of a comedy that throws jokes at you with a kitchen sink approach; not all of them land, but enough of them do. Game Night, as befits its name, is fun and silly, good for a chill evening with some friends, and it may just get you digging out that old copy of Jenga or Scrabble. (But not Sorry!...that game's terrible.)
Comedies like Game Night excel at giving audiences looking for a machine gun barrage of quips, awkward scenarios, and outlandish situations a warm welcome. There is an overabundance of ridiculous events and twists and turns that keep even the most attention deficit stricken types away from their cell phones. (Heaven help you if even this blitz of jokes and zaniness can't do it for you!) A familiar-as-a-worn-glove such example is when Max and company go to Gary's house under the pretense of playing a game of Jenga, so that Max can sneak into his computer room to access the police database and determine the identity and residence of one of the criminals Brooks has been dealing with. (Yes, that was a lot.) Previously, Max got shot (by Annie...another long story), and his wound is bleeding through his shirt, profusely! (Really, that Max hasn't passed out by now requires that you suspend your disbelief to the extreme, but I digress.) Anyway, Gary has a white Bichon Frisé (or something resembling one), and wouldn't you know it? Gary discovers that he's bled all over the dog! What to do?! Well, Gary tries wiping it off with a damp towel, totally covering the dog in blood instead! Oh no! Even worse! The dog shakes--or Gary shakes the towel, I don't know, the movie didn't feel like slowing down to make it clear--so blood splatters all over the room, including on a shrine that Gary keeps of his dead wife, Debbie (who was the only reason why Gary used to game with Max and Annie...because he's the weird one). These kinds of outrageous situations are the lock, stock, and trade of Game Night, and are generally pretty effective. Each twist in the story feels like it emerged from a "so crazy, we've gotta do it" mindset. But since plot doesn't just take a back seat in Game Night, it gets locked in the trunk, who cares? That said, part of what helps the jokes in Game Night land is when these twists and turns in the plot spring forth, sometimes foreshadowed only in the most minor of ways. At times, Game Night wants to be a lot more than just a wacky story about feuding brothers, in vitro complications due to insecurity complexes, celebrity impersonator hookups, and fight clubs. It wants to be an action movie, and it's got a few moments peppered in to fulfill that desire. Just keep in mind that as long as you check your expectations about the movie being essentially a two-hour laugh factory and not more than that, you'll have a good time.
Recommended for: Fans of a comedy that throws jokes at you with a kitchen sink approach; not all of them land, but enough of them do. Game Night, as befits its name, is fun and silly, good for a chill evening with some friends, and it may just get you digging out that old copy of Jenga or Scrabble. (But not Sorry!...that game's terrible.)