'Game Night' Review

Max and Annie are a competitive couple who hold weekly game nights with their close friends. One day, Max's brother Brooks decides to kick things up a notch by arranging a murder mystery party involving fake thugs and federal agents. When Brooks is kidnapped, everyone assumes that it's a staged part of the game and they quickly set out to solve the clues. However, they quickly discover the situation is much more serious then they could have ever imagined... 

John Francis Daley and Johnathan Goldstein co-directed Game Night while Mark Perez wrote the screenplay, and I must say I was quite impressed by their work considering how little I was expecting from the film. If I'm being completely honest, I had no intention of watching Game Night when I went to the theater as I actually went to see Annihilation... However, the showing I planned on watching was sold out so I settled for Game Night as a last minute stand-in and you now have the pleasure of reading a review I probably wouldn't have written otherwise. 

For me, the crucial component of a comedy is whether it made me laugh consistently or not, and Game Night definitely delivered in that department. Perez's script is full of zingers and the cast comedic timing is spot-on, so I cackled on several occasions. I was also rather impressed how Daley and Goldstein didn't simply take the "R" rating as a liberty to steep into the lazy territory most raunchy comedies traverse these days. My main source of criticism resides with the marketing for showcasing some of the funnier bits in trailers, but I suppose the studio has gotta do what it takes to get butts in seats. Other than that, I'd say the characters are rather simple and not too compelling. They're very paint-by-numbers with cliché archetypes, but I honestly wasn't expecting much else considering it's a comedy.

As for the cast, everyone does a solid job and is afforded their moment to shine. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams prove to have a delightful on-screen dynamic and are thoroughly hilarious in numerous scenes. Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Billy Magnussen, and Sharon Horgan are also incredibly engaging as Max and Annie's couple friends and Kyle Chandler is convincingly overconfident as Max's self-important brother Brooks. Meanwhile, Jesse Plemons is probably the one you'll be thinking about most afterwards due to the eccentricities of his creepy character. With that in mind, I'd advise sticking around through the first part of the credits for some stuff you may get a kick out of!

If you're apprehensive about seeing Game Night because you're afraid it might be a mediocre modern comedy, I can assure you that you'll be rolling some loaded dice guaranteeing lots of laughter and a great time at the theater. It's understandable that you may have a difficult time choosing what to see this weekend if you missed out on Black Panther or maybe want to even see it a second time, but Game Night certainly qualifies as a capable comedy. When contemplating what to watch this weekend, remember either will suffice and it's always better to be safe than Sorry!

Film Assessment: B