Director: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 100 minutes
Game Night (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Humans are creatures of habit, and we often notice this when it comes to certain things, such as a specific meal on a predetermined day of the week, a scheduled training routine, and of course, if you’re into board games and such, you might already have a planned game night. This movie revolves around such friends, who do a scheduled game night every now and then, in order to see who is the best at certain games. Of course, this would be rather boring, and thus the movie takes things up a notch when kidnappers are added to the equation.
Max (Jason Bateman) has always been a very competitive (board) game player, and this is also shown at the beginning of the movie. In one of his gaming ventures he meets Annie (Rachel McAdams), who is equally as competitive as Max and it seems there is a natural connection. Years later when they are happily married, the couple is trying to conceive but it seems Max is too stressed out, and it might be because of his competitive nature, and the fact that he always feels downplayed by his brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler). Now that Brooks is coming over for one of their game nights, Max is more stressed than ever, and especially when they hear that Brooks will be organizing the next game night.
Brooks has something special in mind, namely a sort of ‘acted’ kidnapping, where the players must unravel clues in order to find the abducted player and as a result gain a big prize. In this case, it’s Brooks’ brand new costly car. When two kidnappers arrive, nobody, except for Brooks, who is getting abducted, realizes that all that is happening is not part of the game. It seems Brooks has pissed off the wrong people, and is now actually getting abducted, all while Max and Annie are following the kidnappers, thinking it’s a part of the game.
The flow of the movie is pretty much as you’d expect from a comedy with some action intertwined to keep things spiced up. The movie is not too long, and the information is given at the right times, even though some parts of the movie are predictable. That being said, there are a few plot twists that make this movie better than you’d initially think and they also make it worth to sit it through to the end. While this may sound extremely negative, the movie is never truly dull or slow, it’s just a fairly bland experience in terms of humor, as people who will watch the trailer before deciding on purchasing the physical release, will have already seen the movie’s funniest parts.
Game Night has a phenomenal cast for an otherwise bland and somewhat dull movie. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams take the lead in this so-called comedy that actually has more action than comedy elements in it. Other cast members such as Kyle Chandler, Sharon Horgan, Billy Magnussen, Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury all add interesting acting experiences to the equation and make the movie feel more alive than it would have with only the leading characters. The further you progress in the movie, the more familiar faces you can find, all while the movie remains equally unfunny as the first parts of the movie.
In terms of special features, you must realize you’re doing something wrong when the making of is shorter than the gag reel. Nonetheless, a movie such as this doesn’t really need any extras in order to shine on its own. Sadly, this movie never outshines any other comedy movies, nor is it much worse, it’s stuck in mediocrity, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a slow night at home.
Conclusion
Game Night is one of those movies that will get you through a boring evening, and is best to be enjoyed with some company. While the movie claims it’s a comedy, it never steps away from simple and predictable humor you can see coming from more than several miles away. That being said, the movie can still provide some fun, thanks to the great cast supporting the title and the moderately interesting story, which in the end feels a bit like a decoction of the classic film The Man Who Knew Too Little.
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