The playful and enthusiastic offering of ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ is, even with its limitations, a grateful breath of fresh air both in the archetypal blockbusters and in the more serious medieval fantasy (sometimes self-imposed). And it also shows the right funny timing and the ability to create adventures that involve muggings or other crimes of the directors.
Although more than showing it, it reaffirms it. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein came out of a seemingly unnecessary reboot like ‘Vacation‘, which in the end had little to envy from the original and knew how to laugh at himself. But where they really showed his skills and concerns is with one of the most dazzling and refreshing American comedies of the last decade: ‘Game Night’.
When the game goes wrong
Orchestrated around a group of friends who meet every week to socialize and play different games, but end up getting into one of those crazy night movies where everything that can go wrong goes big, the duo’s second film is one of those little lifesavers that occasionally darts into original comedy with a not-inconsiderable budget. A great mix of games and crime that can be seen streaming on HBO Max and Amazon Prime Video.
At the center of the group of friends is the couple played by Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, competitive by nature and wanting to start a family but having difficulties conceiving. His weekly games are turned upside down with the return of his brother, a charismatic and laid-back Kyle Chandler who is determined to brag about his successes and who wants to make a night for history by orchestrating a kidnapping mystery night. He doesn’t expect it to happen at all. a turn of events where the group will have to solve other mysteries to try to survive.
It all sounds very simple to attract attention, but ‘Game Night’ is one of those movies done phenomenally in all its areas. Starting with some well-posed characters from the script, from the main ones to the secondary ones (who, far from being mere troupes, have careful arcs as if they were the protagonists of their own story), and are taken to the next level by an excellently chosen cast. who has a great time during the journey.
‘Game Night’: Enthusiasm Contagious
And enthusiasm is contagious. The improvisation leads to good situations and jokes that are well distributed during the footage. To a mystery that has a sufficient degree of intrigue is added a fantastic rhythm from the direction, which knows how to move between characters without losing steam and that offers notable moments of achievement. It is one of those films where you can see that they have deigned to give it a decent budget so that they can carry out dynamic sequences, which do not have to be driven solely by the freshness of the actors, such as a fun and tense “ball game”. “done in a (fake) sequence shot that works wonders.
From those obvious details to the smallest, made with an elegant and active (but not exhausting) assembly, it shows that Daley and Goldstein have had the resources to give it a different touch and be attractive both visually and intriguing. ‘Game Night’ doesn’t seem like much until you see how it uses its pieces well, how it doesn’t lose its freshness at any point and how you’re even laughing with a blood-soaked dog. It has well measured the degree between scoundrel and accessible, and it is the kind of movie that today’s comedy needs so as not to fall into absolute irrelevance within the current diet of Hollywood productions.
In Espinof | The best comedies in history