Game Night Review

I’m a simple man.  If a movie has a high Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score, I want to see it, and these days I probably will see it, especially given how little I have to lose thanks to Moviepass.  When I saw that Game Night was Certified Fresh (82%), though, I was skeptical to say the least.  How could a movie like Game Night – a run-of-the-mill comedy based on the trailers that I had seen and the things that I had heard – be such a critical darling?  I had to find out.  So I went, and it was basically free.  Shoutout yet again to Moviepass, one of the greatest companies in existence.

Game Night is a solid comedy starring Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams in the lead roles.

One of the really great things about Game Night is how much it buys into its premise.  While the film starts with what most would consider an average board game night with friends, it quickly progresses – as I’m sure the marketing material has already suggested to you – into something much more grandiose and dangerous for the cast of characters to handle, but at the same time, a bunch of small-time board game references remain.  From Annie’s trying to remove a bullet from Max’s arm (Operation) to Kevin’s building a tower of wooden blocks to escape a locked room only to have it all collapse (Jenga), there are callouts to the classics everywhere, culminating in a quick bout of Charades in the climactic moments of the film.  There’s even some interesting camera work at play, as Game Night uses certain lens/focus techniques that are frankly beyond my cinematographic knowledge to make all of the sets and characters seem like pieces on a board.

A truly fantastic scene from the front half of the film, right around when the plot really breaks open.  That gun’s not fake, Annie!

As those pieces go, the cast of Game Night is phenomenal, and is one of the things that serves to elevate the film above other comedies of the same ilk.  Jason Bateman shines in one of the lead roles, Max, playing a character extremely similar to his part in Horrible Bosses and Horrible Bosses 2, but executing very well all the same.  Rachel McAdams plays his wife, Annie, and acts as a great foil while also matching his frenetic quirkiness.  The real star of this show, though, is Jesse Plemons, who you may know from TV’s Friday Night Lights (one of my favorite guilty pleasures), Breaking Bad, and most recently an excellent episode of Black Mirror.  Plemons’ non-central but critical character produces some of Game Night‘s best twists and laughs alike, to the point that it could easily be argued that he’s the lynchpin of the whole production.  Also on hand are Billy Magnussen (The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, that same Black Mirror episode), Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Argo), and Lamorne Morris (New Girl), whose featured Denzel Washington impression had me both wildly impressed and in stitches.  Stay tuned in the back half of Game Night to be surprised – well, at least I was surprised – by an appearance by one of Showtime’s favorite serial killers as well.

One of Jesse Plemons’ many simultaneously bone-chilling and hilarious scenes.

The laughs in Game Night range from quippy one-liners to classic Jason Bateman straight-man antics to some pretty ridiculous situational setpieces, including dripping blood from a gunshot wound on a fluffy white dog and stumbling upon a secret fight club in the basement of a mansion.  My personal favorite scene involved one of the main characters trying to bribe someone with $17 (maybe because I could relate to the financial aspect of it), but the most consistently funny comedic group was Bateman and McAdams vs. Plemons, especially early on.  That humor is more of a cringe-inducingly awkward variety, but it’s really well-sold by the actors involved, and isn’t overdone.  All of this is to say that I suspect that there’s some humor for everyone in Game Night, as it covers a broad range of gags spanning more physical comedy and topical humor alike, without getting too vulgar or lewd, which is nice.  I’m not sure it would have been a good idea to take my younger sister to see it, but it’s a soft R-rating I’d say, if that’s the sort of thing you’re reading this wondering about.

Jason Bateman staunchly not looking as Rachel McAdams fires a gun directly over his head.

Even if not every joke lands, though, Game Night remains undeniably engaging until the very end, maintaining a solidly fast pace through its comparatively weak dramatic subplot moments.  As a film, it’s written with full knowledge that these quieter moments are not in any way absurd enough to be what the target audience has shown up for, and so the writers do things like sandwich a serious conversation about parenthood between a few sex jokes and a hot-potato session with a priceless Faberge egg to keep things light.  At times the manufactured levity admittedly feels a little cheap, but it also feels right, and at the end of the day it’s an awfully hard thing to complain about, especially considering that none of the more melodramatic moments are really used to drive the central plot.  While some characters (namely Chandler’s) may experience some kind of cathartic growth as a result of the events that take place, the creators of Game Night know better than to force its audience to care about that aspect, or even pay all that much attention to it.

Y’all got any games in there?

Game Night is a solid comedy that performs the sadly rare feat of producing numerous laughs beyond the gags we’ve all seen in the trailers, and it also makes excellent use of a great premise to deliver a story with a surprising amount of unexpected twists and turns.  Even considering how well it’s doing, it probably won’t be in theaters for too much longer, so check it out while you have the chance!