Game Night (2018) * *

Directed by:  John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein

Starring:  Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Danny Huston, Billy Magnussen, Jesse Plemons, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury, Michael C. Hall, Jeffrey Wright

Max (Bateman) has been uber-competitive his whole life.   He needs to win at everything and he meets his soulmate Annie (McAdams) at a bar trivia night.    Their eyes lock and they know they are destined for each other.    Fast forward a few years, and Max and Annie can't conceive a child, which bothers Max because it would give him a one-up on his older brother Brooks (Chandler), who drives around in a classic Stingray and brags about how much money he has.    Max loves his brother, but envies him and perhaps his competitive fire is stoked by his lifelong sibling rivalry.

Max and Annie host game night, in which the couple looks to wipe the floor with their coupled friends at Trivial Pursuit, Life, Sorry, or any number of board games.    They usually win, until one night Brooks comes to town and wishes to participate.    Brooks has no qualms about telling embarrassing stories about Max and taking over game night hosting duties.    Brooks promises a game night to end all game nights with a murder mystery in which even the participants won't be able to tell what's real and what's not.    In a plot twist the trailers gave away, so don't blame me, Brooks is kidnapped for real by thugs and Max and friends believe it is part of the game.    They act with a sense of urgency to find Brooks, but only for bragging rights and not because they believe his life is in danger.

The game night participants soon learn Kyle is in real danger and he isn't who he purports to be, which is met with some relief by Max, who sees Brooks as perfect.    The joke would become stale if it were to be stretched out to feature length, but once the movie becomes a straight action comedy, the laughs grow less frequent anyway.    Game Night is a concept which can't be sustained, but the alternative is tired also.   Bateman and McAdams are wonderful comic actors and pour plenty of energy into the film.    Jesse Plemons gets laughs also as a weird police officer neighbor who never seems to take his uniform off and longs to be part of game night.     There are a couple of plot twists, which on the surface seem fun, but after a few moments' thought don't make a lot of sense.   

We wind up with a comedy which is neither fish nor fowl.   It is harmless; perhaps better enjoyed by others.   After a strong start, the movie retreats into convention even as it tries not to.