Six close friends meet each week for a game night involving board games, charades and pop culture trivia quizzes. Being the most competitive of the bunch, Max and his wife Annie, who seem to be a perfect match in every way, usually win every time. However, their marriage is on rocky ground as Annie fears that Max doesn't want to have children. When Max's shady brother Brooks reappears after a long mysterious absence and suggests that they have their next gathering at his place, no one expects that their weekly game night is about to go to the next level as Brooks organizes a full blown murder mystery party complete with actors as criminals and cops for them. However, when Brooks is violently kidnapped in front of everyone, it turns out that the game is all too real. Now, Max, Annie, their womanizing dimwitted friend Ryan, his domineering Irish date Sarah, and their childhood friends Michelle and her husband Kevin, who's obsessed with finding out with which mysterious celebrity Michelle cheated him on once, must join forces and their wits to rescue Brooks from two dangerous rival criminals who seemingly want his head. Unfortunately, they'll also need help from their creepy introverted next door neighbor Gary, a grieving divorcee cop who desperately wants to be their friend. A group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves entangled in a real-life mystery when the shady brother of one of them is seemingly kidnapped by dangerous gangsters. ***** SPOILER ALERT *****<br/><br/>I LOVED this movie! It was another throwback from the 80s - 90s movies that wasn't all about educating society or enlightening them to whatever (fill-in-the-blank) issue educating us to whatever Hollywood's most recent "cause" is, but simply entertains. The actors fit their parts perfectly. The storyline is riddled with so many holes, you could squeeze through them, but I didn't care because I was too busy laughing at the truly non-gross-out humor we so rarely get to see these days. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams (as Max and Annie respectively) were seriously challenged as the best actors in the movie by the entire rest of the cast, including a cameo at the end by Michael C. Hall (Dexter). Lamorne Morris (New Girl) and Kylie Bunbury played the very funny couple who spend most of the movie discussing a one-night stand she had with a Hollywood celebrity (or she thought) before they were married, and Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods) and Sharon Horgan play the hilariously mismatched couple, Ryan and Sarah whose main humor is his total ignorance about everything and her rolling eyes at how stupid he is. Then there was a surprising turn by Kyle Chandler who plays Max's wealthy brother, Brooks, and Annie's creepy next door neighbor, Gary, who coincidentally is played by Jesse Plemons - both Chandler and Plemons starred in the great TV show, Friday Night Lights together. This group has serious chemistry all together, including the small part Michael C. Hall has.<br/><br/>As a comedy, I would probably peg it as somewhat slap-stick. But if you just sit back and just watch it as it is, without thinking too hard about it, you cannot help but laugh at the genuinely funny things that kept happening as the story progressed. It actually reminded me a little bit of Saturday Night Live in it's early days, before it became a political mouthpiece. There was continuous chatter between the characters, no matter how serious the situations they were dealing with, which made it even funnier. I suspect this is another movie that the regular folks like me will love. The artsy-fartsy folks will be scratching their heads wondering what the heck just hit them. To say Jason Bateman, so excellent in the Netflix show Ozark, has serious comedic flare is an understatement. Having seen Rachel McAdams in other comedies, this was a lark for her. <br/><br/>If you can put aside your need for total reality for one night and just sit back and let it flow over you, you will love this movie. I wish they made MORE like this today! I gave it 8 Stars because it's not a great movie, but it's a FUN movie. It's entertainment of the purest form. At nobody's or group's expense. It pretty much sends up all stereotypes, and is an offend-free movie. Highly recommended. The best time I've spent watching a movie in a while! Rent it and watch it. So NOT a waste of time. A group of friends who meet regularly for game nights find themselves trying to solve a murder mystery,<br/><br/>This film is directed by John Francis Daley (Vacation) and Jonathan Goldstein (Vacation). This film is written by Mark Perez (Accepted). It stars Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), Rachel McAdams (The Notebook) and Kyle Chandler (Argo).<br/><br/>This film is hilarious and a rather great action film. The direction is brilliant, especially the car chases which are surprisingly thrilling. You don't expect great action and direction from a comedy film, but it is truly breathtaking direction. In one scene the directors make a chase around a house even more heart ponding because they shot it in one take. But by far the best thing about this film is Jesse Plemons (Battleship) as the main characters next door neighbor. He is so funny every time he was on screen I laughed.<br/><br/>But the film is a tad overlong with one to many twists at the end making it seem like the creative team had tones of different endings and didn't know which one to go with, so they just did all of them. <br/><br/>Very rewatchable and defiantly one I will be buying on Blu-ray, but the ending does spoil the film in my opinion.<br/><br/>8/10 Mark Perez has written one of the tightest comedy scripts to make it to be the big screen in ages. Game Night, directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, wastes not a single second of dialogue, gives killer lines to every member of its all-star ensemble, delivers genuinely tense action sequences, and even goes for broke with style.
Plaund replied
295 weeks ago