Game Night: A Shot of Ridiculousness

Do you need a movie to decompress from the Oscars? Something that will make you burst out laughing with sheer audacious silliness? Then Game Night is the movie for you. Word of warning: don't bother watching the trailer for this film as it gives away scenes from the beginning to the end. Just go into it unspoiled and savor the madness.

Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman star as Annie and Max, a happily married couple that absolutely love game nights. They are uber-competitive but fun people, so their friends show up every week at their home to get slaughtered at charades, Pictionary, and whatever game takes their fancy. However, when Max's "cool" brother, Brooks (Kyle Chandler), arrives in town for a business trip, he invites Max and his friends over to his place for a much more high-scale game night experience. He has hired a company to treat them all to a murder mystery night and in the midst of setting up the scene for his guests, two men burst into the house and attack him. He runs around the house, throwing things at them, trying to shoot them before he loses his gun, and ultimately is bound and gagged and dragged out of the house. All while his guests watch, astounded at how realistic the whole performance is and ready to get started on this murder mystery party. But of course, all of that was real, and Brooks really has been kidnapped by some unsavory characters.

The rest of the movie proceeds as inanely as you would expect. The three couples split up, each determined to win, as the prize is Brooks' vintage sports car. Through different routes, they all finally arrive at the conclusion that this has all been a horrible misunderstanding and they end up having to join forces in earnest to save Brooks' life. This involves tussles with mobsters, a botched heist, dealing with Annie and Max's creepy cop neighbor (played with kooky joy by Jesse Plemons) and endless opportunities for physical comedy and hapless ineptitude. There are multiple fake outs, convoluted storylines, and outrageous plot twists before things are finally resolved. Somewhat.

Game Night is concentrated comedy gold. Written by Mark Perez and directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, it is so intricately plotted that I can't complain about the moments of extreme absurdity. Each couple gets an entertaining story arc, everything get tangled and untangled elegantly, and the entire thing is carried off by an all-star cast that knows how to sell every moment and keep you intrigued till the end. There were multiple moments where I burst out laughing, and there were also moments where I literally hugged my knees to my chest (we were watching in a recliner theater) and cringed because things were getting way too bloody and hilarious. It is such a wonderful, stupidly clever movie, and I hope there are sequels because I could watch this kind of thing forever.