Movie Review: Game Night (2018)

*WARNING: This review may contain possible spoilers, mild as they may be. Read at your own risk.*

   GAME NIGHT tells the story of six friends who get together regularly to play various games. One night, in particular, turns unpredictable and deadly when one of the group's brother (Kyle Chandler) arrives and joins in for his version of Game Night.
   GAME NIGHT is, at best, mildly amusing and at worst, poorly crafted story-telling. The marriage of comedy and suspense thriller doesn't mix well here. Neither of the attempted genres works on it's own for that matter. The comedy just isn't laugh out loud funny as I was expecting. Maybe a chuckle here or there, but certainly not the gut buster that I was told to expect. The suspense here is second rate, at best, and never well executed. The bad guys are inept and about as menacing as a Scooby Doo villain.
  Let's talk about the screenplay for a minute. The action and the plot literally come to a halt for the characters to (1) tell jokes that mostly go nowhere. I will reference a scene where Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams get the upper hand on some bad guys in a bar. Rachel McAdams holds a gun on the men who are lying on the ground. She goes into a comedy dialogue when The bad guys could easily overtake her, for the simple fact that she is running her mouth nonstop. (2) There are also scenes where the plot stops for one( sometimes more) of the couples to talk about their relationship issues.

  Then there are the plotholes. I will reference two for this review. (1) Who would leave their brother (jerk or not) behind to be taken by bad guys? (2) Who walks around seemingly pain-free after getting shot in the arm, then, a scene or two later, is bleeding all over a dog and spending the rest of the movie like he never got shot. My other issue with the film is with the characters. Most are self-absorbed. They are not people I would want to willingly spend an evening with, especially an hour and forty minutes, which is the run-time of this film. 

  There is a plus side, so not all is bad. There are a couple of decent scenes, one involving the as mentioned bloody dog and the other involving a Faberge egg. Risky Business, anyone? There is some nice chemistry to be found between Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, but it's Jesse Plemons (Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad)as the couple's next door neighbor who steals the movie. 

 I didn't find this movie nearly as funny as the people in the audience seemed to think it was. I like my characters on the likable, if not relatable side. I also found many of the characters to be self-absorbed and mean-spirited. 

 I recommend skipping this GAME NIGHT and watching an altogether different movie or have your own Game Night instead. 

  I give GAME NIGHT a C.