During a Normal Game Night, Friends Become Pawns

From left: Kylie Bunbury, Lamorne Morris, Billy Magnussen,
Sharon Horgan, Jason Bateman, and Rachel McAdams
in "Game Night"
Photo Credit: Imdb.com

We’ve all had times when we get together with friends to have a game night.  Whether it be board games, video games, or any other kind of game, there’s a good time to be had when you mix friendship with the thrill of competition.  At times, it can go from playful rivalries to screaming at each other (I’ve experienced such a transition while playing Mario Kart: Double Dash with friends in college).  However, no matter what happens, the steam blows over right away, and all’s well again.

The concept of bonding over games is something that’s taken to comedic extremes in John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldstein’s new film, “Game Night,” a funny, smart, and unpredictable romp that revels in its madcap antics.

Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) are a husband and wife who connect over their competitiveness and have hosted many game nights.  When Max’s more-successful brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), comes to town, he invites Max, Annie, and their friends (Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, and Kylie Bunbury) over to his rental for a game night of his own, which he intends to be a kidnapping mystery.  When a duo of assailants breaks in and takes Brooks, the others believe the criminals to be actors in the game.  After the friends begin to play, they soon realize that everything that’s happening is real and must do what they can to find Brooks.

The cast is loaded with fine performances, all of whom get to contribute laughs, but there are a few who stand out the most, particularly McAdams, Magnussen, and Jesse Plemons, who plays a police officer and Max and Annie’s neighbor.  

Although McAdams has been in a few comedies throughout her career, this is the first time since her breakthrough role in 2004’s “Mean Girls” that she gets to show off her comedic skills.  She exhibits a boundless energy for the duration of the film that keeps you caught up in the excitement, and she has one of best moments of the film where she gets to imitate Amanda Plummer’s Honey Bunny character from “Pulp Fiction.”  

Plemons is a blast to watch, seeing as he takes a comically serious approach to his character, hardly cracking a smile throughout the film, but making the audience do nothing but that during his scenes.  With his character, Plemons strikes a terrific balance between being creepy and funny, and whenever he’s on screen, this enjoyable movie becomes even more so.

Magnussen steals his share of scenes as the group’s lovable doofus and provides wonderful delivery for some of the film’s funniest lines.  What’s great about Magnussen’s character is that, even though he’s dumb, his brainlessness is downplayed, as opposed to putting it into trying-to-hard-to-make-you-laugh territory, such as what we saw with Chris Hemsworth’s character in 2016’s “Ghostbusters” reboot.

The screenplay by Mark Perez takes the simple idea of a game night and provides it with many twists, which results in a narrative that offers plenty of fun as it leaves you guessing where the insanity is going to go next.  Given the amount of characters that take part in the outrageousness, the film has lots of possibilities as to what could happen, and this allows each character a chance to exhibit their comedic skills.

The story also includes some subtle references to different games, such as Operation and The Game of Life, and uses them for certain plot points.  This lets you see the comedic results of the characters being in real-life versions of these games at certain moments, which adds another level to the aspect of them having to use their gaming expertise to get through each challenge.  One such instance is an entertaining sequence, which is meant to resemble a game of Pac-Man, where the group of friends is chased around a mansion by assailants, and the scene is made more enjoyable because it’s shown in a fast-moving long take, thanks to Barry Peterson’s cinematography.

Although this movie’s basically a comedic version of David Fincher’s 1997 mystery-thriller, “The Game,” directors Daley and Goldstein still manage to deliver terrific entertainment.  They have the film maintain a quick pace as they move from one set piece to another, keep the laughs constant, and use neat visuals in some instances to make the settings look like that of a game board.

If you would like a game night with higher stakes and wilder times, ditch Hasbro and Milton Bradley, and go with this movie.

Final grade: B+