Game Night is basically David Fincher's 1997 underrated action/thriller The Game redone as a black comedy flick, in the vein of something like Very Bad Things or Rough Night, and I don't mean that as a dis.
After all, when you get down to it, almost everything is a rip-off of something. Basically, it just boils down to whether it's a novel spin on something or just a blatant rip-off of one. Game Night is the former, I'm happy to say.
Here's the set-up: Max (Jason Bateman, Arrested Development) is a hyper-competitive gamer that never met a game night he didn't try to conquer. He meets his match in Annie (Rachel McAdams, The Notebook), who's just as determined to win as he is and the two get hitched, after he proposes- naturally- via one of said games.
One game night, Max's brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler, Friday Night Lights), the main reason behind his win-at-all-odds mindset, crashes the festivities, winning as he always does, but with a caveat: he invites them to his house for an ultimate winner-take-all game night to end all game nights.
It turns out that Brooks has scheduled their participation in one of those IRL murder mystery-type game, only with a spin: instead of a murder, the group of friends must solve a kidnapping- Brooks' own.
A faux FBI agent (Jeffrey Wright, Westworld) shows up and passes out clues, warning them the kidnapping is about to happen, and boy, does it ever. But is it part of the game, or is it really happening?
I won't spoil the fun, but suffice it to say, there are a lot of twists and turns here, some of them completely unbelievable, but if you check your brain at the door, you shouldn't mind it. As with The Game, the biggest question is: could someone actually pull this off IRL without someone getting hurt? Seems like a dubious proposition, but that's movies for you.
Bateman, reuniting with the team behind the Horrible Bosses films, John Francis Daley (who also cameos in the film- you might know him as Dr. Sweets on TV's Bones) and Jonathan Goldstein (who co-wrote Spider-Man: Homecoming with Daley and also cameos in this film), is basically doing a reworking of his Bad Words character here, only less despicable.
Conversely, McAdams, who I've never been a huge fan of, TBH- she always seemed to me like she wasn't doing a lot of acting when she played her signature role as Regina George in the classic Mean Girls- has never been so likable on-screen, for my money.
Granted, she's playing a win-at-all-costs glory-hound, so it isn't that far removed from her George character, but McAdams also manages to invest the character with a genuine love for her husband- she's not trying to beat him, just everyone else. She's the ultimate in "I've got your back" significant others, willing to do anything to support her man.
McAdams is also genuinely funny in the role, arguably her best since Mean Girls. I admit, I've never actually seen The Notebook, so I can't really take that one into account, but I've seen any number of her other films, and it seems to me she fares better when playing someone a bit more ruthless, i.e. Red Eye or Passion.
As the pair's best friends, there's New Girl star Lamorne Morris, basically playing the same character here, as Kevin; Kylie Bunbury (TV's Under the Dome) as his wife, Michelle; and Billy Magnussen (doing a variation of the doofus he plays on TV's Get Shorty adaptation) as Ryan, a serial dater that brings a new girl to seemingly every game night.
Rounding out the main game night bunch is Sharon Horgan (TV's Catastrophe), Ryan's latest date, who is the rare woman around his own age, and conveniently way smarter than most of the girls he typically dates- as typified by the hilariously awful, self-involved Millennial-type Madison, excellently played by Natasha Hall (S.W.A.T.), the girl he brings to the initial game night that Brooks crashes.
There's also creepy, suspicious next-door neighbor Gary (Jesse Plemons, TV's Fargo), a gloomy cop who used to participate in game night but was unceremoniously dumped by the group after he got a divorce from his wife, the only reason they put up with him in the first place.
Because of this, the group tends to hide their game nights from him, which only serves to further arose his suspicions. Might that come in handy when things go sideways? Duh. Plemons is just excellent as the polar opposite of the character he played on Fargo, hilariously weird and wary of his neighbors, not without good reason.
Also cropping up are Danny Houston (American Horror Story: Coven) as a grossly rich guy that might hold a key part of the puzzle; Michael C. Hall (Dexter) as a mysterious figure known only as "The Bulgarian"; and Chelsea Peretti (Brooklyn 99) as Glenda, the "Gamemaster."
All in all, Game Night is a lot of fun, if predictably unpredictable, by which I mean the twists are both expected and somewhat unexpected, but not necessarily completely out-of-left-field, either. In other words, I wasn't floored by any of said twists, but I wasn't insulted or upset by any of them, in spite of how ridiculous some of them were.
That said, I'm not sure necessary a sequel would be, but I also wouldn't be surprised, given the film's moderate success at the box office, if there was one. I suppose I'd watch it, but I'm not clamoring for another one. I think the film accomplished everything it set out to just fine. Then again, when has too much of a good thing ever stopped Hollywood?
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