Game Night

Game Night is a dark comedy mystery film directed by John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein and starring Jason Bateman, Rachael McAdams, Jesse Plemons, Lamorne Morris, Kyle Chandler, and Michael C Hall. The film centers on a group of friends who usually get together to play games until one of them gets kidnapped but the others all think the actual crime is just part of the game and only try to solve it to win a game. This is a hugely hilarious film that works due to the chemistry between the cast, the writing, and how charismatic many of the characters are. The way they all react to the real things going on such as holding a real gun that they think is fake or seeing Chandler's character get attack but think it's for show is beyond funny. How the film begins, with a montage of Bateman and McAdams meeting each other at a competitive trivia game and how every aspect of their lives relates to competitive games is one of the best character introductions and best use of expositional montage to best explain what the two are like. Of course, Game Night isn't perfect as not all of the jokes and comedic moments work as well as others while the idea of the characters realizing that the events are actually happens too fast and early in the film than what I would have liked. For me, I think it would have been better if they learned all about this right at the end of the film, but it's still fun. Over all: 94%
2018 top list so far:
1. Black Panther
2. Game Night