Packed with an amazing cast, witty one-liners and plot twists hidden around every corner, Game Night is a clear winner!
Game Night is centered around Max (played by Jason Bateman) and Annie (portrayed by Rachel McAdams) who host a weekly game night with a few of their friends. When Max’s brother Brooks arrives back in town he offers to host game night and organizes a complicated murder mystery themed challenge that manages to go spectacularly awry. Chaos ensues, and the characters are plunged into a night of mayhem including a kidnapping, the spooky neighbour, a fancy car, a bullet wound and three bags of chips.
The first thing I noticed when watching this film was the incredibly well-written and well-delivered dialogue. Mark Perez, who has surprisingly only worked on a small number of films, takes the writing credit while the actors all seem to have the skills and tact for delivering their lines with the style and timing needed to create a really clever comedic film. Highlights included Lamorne Morris who has made his comedic timing well known throughout his time on New Girl; Rachel McAdams, who is better known for her role in dramas such as The Notebook and The Time Travelers Wife yet did an exceptional job at letting her hair down and throwing some well-timed punches with the comedy actors around her; and of course, Jason Bateman who maintained his typical down-trodden yet hilarious persona we’ve seen in films including Identity Thief and Horrible Bosses – he’s easily defeated, frequently exasperated and constantly hilarious.
Speaking of Horrible Bosses, fans of the 2-film franchise will undoubtedly be fans of Game Night as John Francis Daley and Jonathon Goldstein who were given screenplay writing credits on both Horrible Bosses films have sat in the director’s chairs for this one. The duo successfully created a film that has the same feel as Horrible Bosses, and the pair obviously have a skill in mixing dark comedy, everyday characters and surprisingly good action sequences into one well-executed film.
Game Night also combines an array of different film genres with more than enough laughs for comedy fans, plenty of gunshots and car chases to keep the action fans happy and yet still enough jump scares to keep the crime drama fans at bay. There are even a small handful of well-cast cameos from your favourite crime thriller and crime comedy TV shows, which adds a fun element of asking IMDb ‘Where do I know them from?’ if you couldn’t quite place it at the time.
The only negative criticism I have about the film is that the plot twists get a little … uhh … twisted. The film certainly has its fair share of twists and turns that are executed perfectly and had the cinema gasping and groaning along with the characters on the screen, however the final quarter of the film features a few slightly meta moments that make the characters seem as though they’re aware they’re heading into confusingly over-twisted plot territory. While the self-reflexive comments about the plot were amusing, the actual tying up of the loose ends and tidying up of the plot twists was lacking in clarity. More than likely, that was the intention of the filmmakers but for a film that featured so many different twists and turns, I felt like the audience had earned a more conclusive ending.
Overall, Game Night is a big winner with a strong cast, excellent writing and enough plot twists to keep the audience on their toes. It isn’t a blockbuster that will be competing for any Oscars but it will certainly be making some Top 10 lists for 2018 – including mine.