Game Night Movie Reviews

Game Night plays jokes three moves ahead and has a checkmate of an ending

I can honestly say that I have never been so happy to miss a press screening in my life. Instead I went see the cerebral masterpiece 'Annihilation', which was screening at the same time as this, and of course, like every other critic in San Diego, I chose Garland's epic. Yet having left 'Game Night' this weekend, I realized the beatific aura that lurked in the air of a showing for its target audience wouldn't have been as wonderful if I had viewed it in a room full of 10 critics. As a chorus of laughter overwhelmed the 7th screen at Edwards Mira Mesa theater, I began to notice the setting up of jokes three moves in advance creating genuine comedy and a checkmate of an ending.

Imagine David Fincher's 'The Game' without the masterful taut suspense and 'Date Night' if it was actually funny. Combine the two and you get a film that flirts with being audaciously witty while never crossing the line of palpable raunchiness.

This wouldn't be the first time Denzel Washington featured in a "game" movie(He Got Game), well Denzel himself isn't exactly seen here, but we do get a belly aching laugh out of a Washington "look alike", if you can even call him that. It's priceless schemed MacGuffins like this and more notably a Faberge Egg that keep the drama of the relationships as captivating as the layered debauched game itself. As the whole time, it basks in our questioning of who really is running the game, or if it's a game at all.

Whatever the answer is, the quaint and competitive suburban couple Max and Annie that joined in holy matrimony over games themselves, certainly are not having a good time. But that isn't to say we aren't. The premise of a game night gone wrong is quite intriguing, and the cageyness of sibling rivalry and an odd psychological character study of these friends puts this well above your average early March throwaway comedy. And it's quite smart, going as far to frame and aestheticize the film as if we were viewing the conflict unfold in a bored game, except this time we are not calling the shots.

The premise coalesces around Max's(Jason Batemen) decidedly handsome and wealthier brother Brook's(Kyle Chandler) surprising arrival in town, where we soon learn that he is a cheater at life and the game of Life. In his attempt to show off his new mansion and spice up game night equally, thing's soon, as these things do, become a pandemonium involving the cartel, bullet wounds, car chases, and best of all an ever creepy and ever hysterical scene stealing Jesse Plemon's( a neighboring police officer) who makes Hannibal Lecter look like an ideal saint. And in any other comedy, I could discuss Plemon's in this hard crack detective role, after all he can solve the case of the Tostito chips, but everyone on screen has come to play.

Jason Bateman's brand of comedy has never been so faultless, and that is due to Mark Perez's high concept comedy script, which makes the chemistry between Bateman and Rachel McAdam's wildly convincing as they argue and joke like a couple who has been together for decades.Then there is Bill Magnussen, who plays the most classic dumb blonde since Sean Penn in 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High'. The rest of the bunch, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, and Sharon Horgan all bring their own creativity to their characters comedic tropes that the directors help make larger than life.

Although co-directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein don't craft a perfect film, the action is derivative and it moseys to the conclusion, for March entertainment at the Cineplex it comes close enough. And for as much as they stress that this is not a game, it never takes itself too seriously and is always humorous, and for that, for the few flaws it has, it deserves a get out of jail free card.