Game Night (2018) ***

Game Night is smart enough to be compelling for its 90 minute run time. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams star as a good natured couple Max and Annie, who host weekly game nights, usually clean fun with traditional board games like Risk and Life. When Max's older and more successful older brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) arrives for a visit, game night amps up a few levels. Through a night of misadventures, which may or may not be part of the game, some hilarity and occasionally gruesome humor goes down. As a comedy version of the 1997 David Fincher film The Game, Game Night's tone gets a bit wobbly at times. The shift into action movie parody comes off as ridiculous, but the cast is likable enough to make all the madness fun. A combined parody and celebration of the sheer boredom of life, Game Night is not a bad way to pass 90 minutes.