User Reviews

With the birthday of a friend coming up,I started looking for a movie that she would enjoy. Wanting to go for something that she could just watch and relax to over the summer holidays, comments from a fellow IMDber led to me thinking that it was a good time to open the game board.

View on the film:

Reuniting with Jason Bateman after writing the Horrible Bosses (also reviewed) duo,John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein turn from writers to directors flows with impressive ease,as they and cinematographer Barry Peterson show an eye for stylish set-pieces, that includes extended,one-shot tracking shots around an entire house,and the blending in of tracking shots. Showing their writers side, Daley and Goldstein mix snappy group one-liners with Action Comedy hits which raise the stakes of the game.

Balancing between funny sweet and raunchy dialogue, the screenplay by Mark Perez plays the game with a really solid mystery, as the lively gags are built on the group unwittingly placing themselves in dangerous situations, where the seriousness of the threats,makes the groups anxieties hit the punch-line targets. Joined by terrific supporting turns from Sharon Horgan, Jesse Plemons and Michael C. Hall, Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams give utterly charming performances as Max and Annie, thanks to McAdams sass playing off of Bateman's awkwardness as they get set to play the game.

"Game Night" was a fun experience due to the excellent scripting and the stellar cast. The silly premise is that a group of friends gather to play a highly competitive game designed by a company called "Murder She Wrote." One of the members of the group will be kidnapped by a group of actors. The goal for the other members is to locate the victim. Whoever is first to discover the victim will be awarded a corvette.

The subtext of the game is a longstanding sibling between two brothers. Both are cocky and overly confident men with some deep-seated insecurity. As the game unfolds, the connection of the brothers unfolds in surprising, unexpected ways.

The strength of the film was in the screenplay with witty dialogue and constant allusions to films and film actors. The cast was terrific as an ensemble with perfect timing and inflection to their outrageous lines of dialogue. The direction was superb with great pacing and non-stop action scenes. If there was one standout in the film, it was the character of the disgruntled, lonely neighbor, a cop recently divorced and living with his dog Bastian. It was a great, understated performance.

The film is worth sticking around for the creative closing credits that serve as an imaginative pictorial summary of the entire film. Again, the choices were inventive as the action is cleverly recapped. From start to finish, "Game Night" was a winner for everyone!

"Game Night" centres around an enthusiastic group of sociable party goers who love to game while but somehow unexpectedly get trapped in a world of danger as the game progresses. The film starts to play off as a comedy, but it escalates into more darker territory where the fun becomes more macabre. Under the penmanship of Mark Perez and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the scenes are always unpredictable to the point where it becomes surprisingly intense but the scenes are always entertaining and never once does it ever meander.

The leading couple are Max and Annie Davis (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) who gets the neighbours to participate in their nightly games they set-up. Their marriage was brought on due to games that is implied by the opening montage like Scrabble, Pictionary, charades and more. The participants in their game include Annie's air-headed friend Ryan Huddle (Billy Magnussen) and Sarah Darcy (Sharon Horgan) who's Ryan's date who seems quite intelligent. Then there's Kevin and Michelle Sterling (Lamonie Morris and Kylie Bunbury) who are a husband and wife pairing and Max's distant but very rich brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) who wants to host game night at his estate that he is renting.

While at the house, Brooks gets the guests involved in an interactive role-playing mystery game and places a bit of a wager, that whoever can solve the mystery will awarded with his Stingray. This kind of game pays homage to the old school murder mystery dinner parties that were quite popular in the 1980's. As a whole "Game Night" gets it audience involved on a wild, crazy ride where there's moments of slapstick, intensity and moments that simply erupt into utter chaos.

Unfortunately, Brooks gets abducted and all the other guests assume that it's all part of the game. If that doesn't get your spine chilled there is even a threat of murder from an evil-sounding deviant if the guests don't hand over a precious Faberge egg leading up to the couples to split up and find the relic while their paths continue to recross and diverge from time to time.

Sure other movies like "The Game" among others tried this formula of carefree fun turning unexpectedly dangerous with the twists and turns that come along before. However, "Game Night" have some twists that work, not all, but you'll really get a kick out of the psychology within the characters Perez creates in his script and the self-discoveries that each character endures as they go on this game that has become a quest for survival. We get a better understanding why Max and Brooks hate each other and the heartbreak as to why Max and Annie can't have a child and the other events from their pasts that has haunted them for years. There's suspicion about whether Michelle has always been faithful to Kevin which has been bothering him for a long time. There's even great character development from the supporting cast members who aren't in on the game including Jeffrey Wright as am FBI agent, Danny Huston as a lowlife, Michael C. Hall as an intimidating criminal who only goes by The Bulgarian and Jesse Plemons as a cop who's neighbours to Max and Annie who wants to be parts of Max and Annie's game plans. The characters in the movie are not all who they appear to be under first impression.

The movie is practically the perfect film for adults and truly has something for everyone including a high-adrenaline induced car chase, a violent scene that lead to one of the characters having surgery and a orgy cult like party that pays homage to the 1999 classic "Eyes Wide Shut", but it's still bombarded with issues from the characters like aging, sibling rivalry and being unfaithful. The best performances come from Bateman and McAdams who seem to have a better understanding of each other almost as though they were a married couple. Plemons steals every scene he's in even though his character is played as filler most of the time. Through all the tense moments, it never goes by way of melancholy or preachy.

Though many comedies of this calibre goes by way of becoming formulaic, Daley and Goldstein ensure you they've got the tone under control. The upbeat chemistry between Bateman and McAdams benefits to the plot the way a comedy should be executed. And sure characters seem to get hurt in situations can seem deadly in the real world, still find the composure to fight back and play the game. The props used to slow down the characters are used as wake-up to inject some sense into them. This was a surprisingly good film that went beyond my expectations.