GAME NIGHT
★★★★★ (15)
TRIVIAL pursuits escalate into life-or-death gambles in a rollicking comedy thriller which is funnier and smarter than it initially lets on.
After a largely depressing year for broad Hollywood comedies save the potty-mouthed hysteria of Girls Trip, Game Night deals us a winning hand full of likeable characters, uproarious set-pieces and snappy dialogue.
Max (Jason Bateman) and his wife Annie (Rachel McAdams) are board game fiends, who first locked eyes over a double-points pub quiz question about the Teletubbies.
The loving couple have mastered Trivial Pursuit but they are clueless when it comes to expressing their feelings about parenthood.
Instead, Max and Annie host regular game nights for their friends inlcuding dim-witted pal Ryan (Billy Magnussen) plus whichever bimbo he has picked up that week.
Max’s flashy older brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) returns unexpectedly to the neighbourhood and offers to host the next game night. The friends arrive as instructed and are pleasantly surprised to discover Ryan has invited intelligent co-worker Sarah (Sharon Horgan). Sure enough, an actor (Jeffrey Wright) posing as an FBI agent arrives at the front door with cryptic clues, followed by two masked men, who snatch Brooks after an expertly staged fight.
Except the kidnapping is real and Max, Annie and the gang are now in a race against time to rescue Brooks from gun-toting thugs without arousing the suspicions of the cop (Jesse Plemons), who lives next door.
Game Night whirls violently from slapstick to turbo-charged action via heartfelt confessional.
The winning chemistry of Bateman and McAdams papers over the cracks while Plemons mercilessly scene-steals as the socially awkward neighbour who yearns to be invited.