Mr. Movie review: ‘Game Night’ has game
‘Game Night’
“Game Night” has Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams as game obsessed Max and Annie. Charades, trivia, board games — they love them all. Max and Annie often entertain their closest friends and all enjoy a game night. The cop next door is Gary. He’s a very weird dude and wants to be included but is avoided and never invited.
Annie is competitive but Max is fanatical. He hates losing and never hates it more than losing to his brother, Kyle. Everything Kyle touches turns to gold. He has Hollywood looks, money, fast cars and a jet-setting lifestyle.
Kyle sets up a game night and tells them to believe none of what they see. It’s all a game. Then some very violent men break down the door, beat Kyle up and drag him out the door.
Whoa. Realism. What a great premise for a game.
Max, Annie and their friends calmly start looking for clues as to what actually happened to Kyle. That’s where truth, fiction, illusion and reality begin to bend and blend. Soon it’s hard to decide what’s real and what isn’t.
And then there’s Gary.
“Game Night” is a hoot from start to finish and has more twists than a highway traversing a Rocky Mountain pass. Bateman is at the center of the humor. His co-stars bounce off and around him and have a blast tossing out colorful lines from the clever and ever-evolving twists of writer Mark Perez’s outrageous script.
It is safe to say Bateman has never been better than in “Game Night.” Yeah, I know, Bateman is the same character in every movie. Maybe it’s why we love him. He’s made a career of being the guy on the edge of an explosion. Bateman is controlled, uptight and neither raises nor lowers his voice or changes his facial expressions.
Best of all he delivers killer lines with the straightest of faces.
And then there’s character actor Jesse Plemons (”Hostiles”) who does Gary. He has more fun than anyone, steals every scene he’s in and eventually ends up out deadpanning Bateman. That’s not easy.
The guy has game. The cast has game. Best of all, “Game Night” has game.
▪ Rated R for mature themes and language. It’s playing at the Fairchild Pasco and Queensgate 12s, AMC Kennewick and at Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.
Movie name: ‘Game Night’
Director: John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein
Stars: Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Billy Magnussen, Sharon Horgan, Kylie Bunbury, Lamorne Morris, Danny Huston, Michael C. Hall
Mr. Movie rating: 4 1/2 stars
Rated R for mature themes and language. It’s playing at the Fairchild Pasco and Queensgate 12s, AMC Kennewick and at Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen.
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it’s your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars to 1 star: Don’t bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
This story was originally published February 22, 2018 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Game Night’ has game."