By: Yelin Gemma Lee
Calling all murder mystery fanatics and Clue players! Buckle the fuck up for a riot of a movie — everything you didn’t know you wanted, rolled up into one beautiful hour-and-40-minute film reel called Game Night. I didn’t even notice any promotions for this film, but wow am I glad I went to see it.
Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams play Max and Annie: a charming couple with a competitive obsession for games. Their married life consists of hosting weekly game nights with their friends, but things take a turn when Max’s assbag of a brother, Brooks, comes into town, and hosts a murder mystery party. Quite similar to the game Clue except . . . well . . . paired with actors playing thugs and federal agents. When Brooks legitimately gets kidnapped, the game night crew is put to the test of how they can apply their teamwork skills to find Brooks and not get murdered.
Max and Annie were couple goals. I loved that throughout all this chaos, their relationship developed and went through all sorts of shit while they were narrowly avoiding death. It was such a tense and awkward contrast, but I loved it because they didn’t let the fast-paced drive of the plot detract from character development.
The script is incredibly sharp, with a lovable, dynamic group of characters, and truly gasp-for-air laughing humour. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein did an excellent job of directing, and the end result is a not seamless but cohesive project. The cuts and cinematography are much more innovative than what you would expect from a comedic film.
As funny as this movie was, it is categorized as a mystery/crime film, which I’m not sure I completely agree with. I would say the film is more of a satire or a parody of your typical mystery/crime film. The movie impressed me, however, with the twists and turns. Just when you think you’ve figured out the plot, they throw another plot twist at you that you didn’t even have time to mentally prepare for. Multiple times my friend Dave and I audibly gasped or looked at each other with gaping fish-out-of-water mouths, or seal-slapped each other on the knee in hysterics.
I highly recommend this movie because trust me — you don’t know what you’re walking into. This was charisma made into a movie, and so refreshing compared to the awful comedy being released recently. It had me laughing until the credits, and as I walked out of the theatre.
