Game Night
Director: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Writer: Mark Perez
Cast: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Sharon Horgan, Billy Magnussen, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Jesse Plemons, Michael C. Hall, Danny Huston, Chelsea Peretti
Seen on: 12.3.2018
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Plot:
Max (Jason Bateman), Annie (Rachel McAdams), Sarah (Sharon Horgan), Ryan (Billy Magnussen), Kevin (Larmone Morris) and Michelle (Kylie Bunbury) have a regular game night together. Tonight, Max’ brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) is hosting the party, when men come into his house and take him away. Believing it to be a roleplay, the six players set out to get Brooks back. But things may be more serious than they appear at first.

I didn’t expect much from Game Night and basically just watched it because I had a gap in my schedule where it fit perfectly. But I was pleasantly surprised: Game Night is an entertaining film that made me laugh out loud.

Game Night isn’t a partiicularly smart film, but it doesn’t need to be. It takes a couple of cheap shots when it comes to the comedy, but there was nothing that made me cringe. Too often, comedies of its ilk have jokes that reproduce too many -isms. And while Game Night does nothing to work against stereotypes, it at least isn’t actively working to be offensive.

Instead it is a fast-paced, light comedy that genuinely made me laugh. Timing is essential in films and even more so in comedies, and they really have that down. The Jokes hit the right notes at the right moment, and the story moves along quickly – and even manages to include a twist or two that I didn’t see coming.

The cast was great. Special stand-outs to me were Rachel McAdams who gives Annie amazing energy and doesn’t lose sight of her emotional core, and Jesse Plemons who managed just the right tone of creepiness to still be funny.

All of this makes Game Night a super-entertaining film that achieves what it sets out to do: make people laugh.

Summarizing: Very watchable.