Buddy, it ain’t worth your time
Buddy Games (R16, 96 mins) Directed by Josh Duhamel Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett ★
This job does throw some pleasant surprises my way. For instance, way back in the mists of 2018, I bowled into a wee comedy called Tag, which was based, with profound looseness, on the true story of a group of middle-aged men who play a month-long game in and around their homes in Washington State.
Expecting not much, because the whole idea seemed so threadbare and dire, I was happy to find myself enjoying Tag a lot. It was never going to win any awards, but the cast were committed and talented and the screenplay somehow crammed more twists and turns into the economical running time than really seemed possible.
So, y’know, I didn’t go to see Buddy Games with any expectations, good or bad. Yes, the film does seem to be based on a pretty puerile idea, and the assembled cast – Josh Duhamel, Dax Shepard, Nick Swardson – have got nothing like the chops and charisma of Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm and Ed Helms, who collectively sweated bullets to get Tag over the line.
But I kept all of that out of my head and still watched Buddy Games with an open mind.
That was a wasted effort because, except for a thin smattering of occasionally funny lines, Buddy Games really has almost nothing to commend it.
This really is the lame, predictable, uninventive, mindless and mean-spirited pile of guano you were expecting.
The buddy games of the title are a decades-old tradition played out between a group of seven childhood friends, all now in their 40s. Every year, the guys compete at a selection of Jackass-style challenges, until one of them, by a pretty arbitrary selection process, is crowned king for that year.
But, after a tragic mishap involving a paintball gun and a dangling scrotum kind of soured the fun for contestant Shelly, the games have been under a ra¯ hui for the last five years. That’s until Shelly’s mother contacts the group’s unofficial leader Bob (Duhamel) and asks that the games be revived, for the mental health of her wretched son.
All of that sounds like a fair set up for what might be some inventive stunts and physical comedy. But, it’s just not. After a ho-hum obstacle course and night out that involves laxatives and sleaziness in equal measure, the film really has no ideas left and nowhere to go, and Buddy Games just drifts through the rest of its meagre running time already running on fumes.
This is a shamelessly unoriginal film, that owes even its very few weak laughs to steals from other, far better films. Tag, The Hangover and Bridesmaids are all smashed and grabbed at some point, while Olivia Munn – playing the one role that might have redeemed the story – is reduced to a bit part and then disposed of just when she was actually given something to do.
Typically, the now inevitable blooper reel that accompanies the credits is genuinely funnier and more likeable than anything that precedes it. Avoid.