Max (Bateman) and Annie (McAdams) love a competition. They met at a trivia night and share a love for games of all kind. Every week they host a game night with their closest friends: Kevin (Morris) and Michelle (Bunbury) who have been together since middle school and Ryan (Magnussen) who brings along dim-witted dates. Every week they also try to avoid their sad sack neighbor Gary (Plemons), who is a police officer and used to be a part of game night until his wife, Debbie, left.
Max's brother Brooks (Chandler) is in town and invites the group to his home for game night the next week. As the group arrives, including Ryan's co-worker Sarah (Horgan), they learn that the game for the evening is a murder mystery and the winner will receive Brooks' new car: a Corvette Stingray. Two masked men enter the house, beat Brooks and take him away. As the group starts following the clues, they learn that the evening is not as it appears. Can they survive the evening and rescue Brooks?
I was intrigued by the premise of this film... but expected it to be a raunchy disappointment. I didn't plan to watch the film, or learn anything about it, until it was recommended on my favorite podcast. I re-watched the trailer and decided to give it a chance, while also noting the "R" rating... and I was pleasantly surprised.
The story is interesting: a murder mystery game turned into a real mystery, with real consequences. As a whole, it delivers: it twists and turns and keeps you guessing. The end didn't work for me, and feels like they were trying to hard. The language isn't excessive, but is still too much.
Overall, the film is good, but not great.
Game Night (2018) 100 minutes
Rating: R for language, sexual references and some violence
Director: John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein
Starring: Jason Bateman as Max
Rachel McAdams as Annie
Kyle Chandler as Brooks
Sharon Horgan as Sarah
Billy Magnussen as Ryan
Lamorne Morris as Kevin
Kylie Bunbury as Michelle
Jesse Plemons as Gary
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