Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams star in Game Night, a comedy-thriller, as a couple who hosts a weekly game night for their friends. This weekly event turns upside down when Max’s (Bateman) brother Brooks shows up to play. Brooks has an idea to make this week’s game night the best one yet – a murder mystery. The federal agents come in and snatch Brooks up while the others sit and watch what they believe is the beginning to the game. However, the gang soon realizes that the agents who picked Brooks (Kyle Chandler) up were not a part of the game, and Brooks is in real danger. The rest of the night consists of twists and turns that turn it into a real-life murder mystery.
The movie has jokes throughout, like any comedy should. Most of them are pretty funny, but you can tell they are trying too hard with some of them. The script is great and the movie is unpredictable. Even if you can figure out what is about to happen once, the script has so many different twists that you could be correct for a few minutes and suddenly everything changes.
A big plus to this film is the character development. Outside of Max, Annie (McAdams) and Brooks, I couldn’t tell you the names of the other main characters. But I could tell you what their relationship is like and the obstacles that they face regularly together. Max and Annie are trying to have children but Max is so stressed with his lifelong competition with his brother he’s having a hard time reproducing. One couple has been together since middle school and have already spent more time together than I could ever imagine spending with anybody without going insane (which at least the husband seems to be). Their other friend always brings a different bimbo with him every week and has a hard time finding a real connection with someone, but the date he brings to the murder mystery is intelligent and has never dated anyone like him. Even their neighbor is well-developed, he is a police officer who spends all of his time with his dog after his wife left him. He seeks an invitation to game night, but the friends don’t want him there without his wife.
One issue all the twists and turns create is that it makes the movie feel like it’s being dragged out. They squeeze every second out of this movie possible. The first few surprises are really good at the end, but after a while I found myself wishing it would end.
This movie is great for a date night in. After watching the movie, it left me feeling like I wanted to be a part of a group of friends like this. They are all so competitive in the beginning, only caring about winning game night to brag to their friends for the week, but when danger comes, they band together to help one of their own.
The special features in this movie are nothing too exciting, just your standard making the movie and bloopers. Even though they’re nothing out of the ordinary, they still are cool to see and a must-watch for anyone who was a fan of the movie.
