Game Night Review: Unravels into a Stellar Comedy

The comedy genre and I do not tend to see eye to eye. Perhaps I am just strict when it comes to my sense of humor but I usually find myself unimpressed with modern comedies as they often have the same type of jokes and like to beat you over the head with their punchlines. However when it comes to this profession you cannot pick your battles and sometimes you have to endure certain movies. That was the case for the newest comedy in theaters: Game Night. Directed by the team of John Frances Daley and Jonathan Goldstein Game Night takes the concept of a murder mystery and seemingly mixes it with a comedy of errors. Despite my grievances with modern comedies Game Night,surprisingly, looked entertaining as its ideas could have easily make it an enjoyable comedy. After watching the film I can say that perhaps the biggest twist of the evening was how much I enjoyed Game Night.

The movie tells the story of Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) who enjoy having a game night with their friends. However when Max’s brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) decides to make an epic game night, the evening is turned upside when Brooks is kidnapped by real crooks and the group is caught in a mystery to crazy to believe. The plot to Game Night did not go the way that I expected it to, but that was by no means a bad thing. The plot did feature a comedy of errors concept but handled it in a different way. Along with this was the story’s mystery which was effective as, while may not have been complex, it managed to work thanks to the story’s narrative. Yet this was not to say that the story did not have some puzzling directions. This was the case in how the plot handled its subplots. The subplots were effective by keeping things interesting but they had underwhelming conclusions as, rather than coming to a head, they were all but dropped by the film’s climax. Another issue was that the movie overplayed its mystery a little too much. The twists in the story were effective but with the way that things play out it does get confusing on how certain plot points fit together.

American Ultra Review: High On Surprise and Delight

The genres of comedy and action are never a rare thing to see on the silver screen, but it is not too often that we see a movie that embodies both types of film.  Action-comedies have had an impact on the movie world with the various films making an  impression with moviegoers. However due to the contrast between the genres it can be tricky make an effective action-comedy; but that does not seem to stop filmmakers from making new additions to this sub genre. Such is the case is the newest film from Lionsgate: American Ultra. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh, American Ultra takes the idea of crazy action and mixes it with the concep of a stoner comedy. In the case of this adventurer, seeing another stoner comedy hitting theater was not too thrilling; but I suppose one could always be surprised. So is American Ultra a film that stands as both an action and a comedy, or does this film's chances go up in smoke?

The story of American Ultra follows the stoner Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg). Living in a small town with his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart), things are quite content  for the couple. However everything changes when CIA Agent Victoria Lasseter (Connie Britton) comes to warn Mike that Adrian Yates (Topher Grace) is sending operatives  to kill the young man.  Mike soon discovers that   he is more than able to handle the opposing forces. It turns out that Mike is a sleeper agent trained to deal with any situation. As things drastically get crazier, Mike and Phoebe must survive the night before the CIA catches up with them and terminates the couple.