What? Are you serious? The fall semester starts when? But … but … I still have stuff I want to do! I guess there are still a few more weeks for me to cram in as much summer fun as I can. I still haven’t been to a Rangers game yet this year. Which considering how hot it has been and how cold the Rangers have been, may not be such a bad thing. But it is still one of my favorite summer activities!
And speaking of games, this month, we are going to talk about movies about games. No, not The Game. Nor do I mean this, The Game. Though both of those are fantastic. No, this week, we have two movies that deal with playing games. They target different audiences and approach the subject in different ways, but I feel like we can definitively say one of these is better than the other.
Game Night (2018) [R]
I know, two months in a row I am going with a comedy. They are devilishly difficult to review. Sense of humor is such a personal thing. But I’m a cougar. I don’t shy away from difficult things. And also, I just really enjoyed Game Night.
Directed by the pair of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, Game Night is tight, well-paced and has a tremendous cast, including Dallas-native Jesse Plemons who is an absolute scene-stealer here. Jason Bateman plays his usual role to perfection. Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury make a fantastic and hilarious couple. Even Rachel McAdams whom, since Mean Girls, I can sort of take or leave is really great in this.
The story follows a childless couple, Max and Annie, who meet and fall in love because they are bound by an incredibly competitive nature. They host game nights at their house for a group of friends, however, this time Max’s successful brother, Brooks, is joining the fun.
Brooks explains that for this game night, one of the members of the party will be kidnapped and that the idea of the game is to rescue the kidnapped member and claim a prize which happens to be a car that Max has drooled over since childhood. When a pair of masked gunmen storm into the house and grab Brooks, everyone gets set to start following the clues to find him. The more they dig, however, the clues lead them to believe that maybe this game isn’t what it appears to be.
I can understand why you might have passed on this one. It looks and sounds like it is going to be another run-of-the-mill studio comedy. But Game Night is so well-balanced, it is hard to find too much to fault here. Daley and Goldstein create the perfect mix of tension, violence and humor. You may not think this is the best movie you will see all year but it is a really enjoyable experience to share with some close friends.
7.5 paws out of 10
Ready Player One (2018) [PG-13]
Next up on the docket is Ready Player One, which is based on the Ernest Cline novel of the same name. The film follows the adventures of Wade Watts, played by Texas native Tye Sheridan. The film takes place in 2045 and like most people in his world, Wade escapes the dreariness of his everyday life by entering an immersive virtual reality game called the Oasis. The founder of the game, James Halliday, is a greatly revered figure who reveals after his death that he has created a special game within the Oasis. The winner of this game will get, not only Halliday’s fortune, but control of the Oasis itself.
There is a lot of story that director Steven Spielberg barrels through. The pacing of Ready Player One is breakneck. And unfortunately, it feels like Spielberg and fellow screenwriter Zak Penn focused a little too much on stuffing the scenes with trivia and ’80s pop culture references than on details that would have helped to flesh out the world.
Which leads me to a problem I have with the film. Did pop culture end in the ’80s? I mean, I get it, that was Spielberg’s heyday. And during the 80’s, Ernest Cline was in his teens. I understand why they would both romanticize that period. But this movie takes place in 2045. Are you trying to convince me that there is nothing of cultural value post 1990? This is a story about young people that feels like it was made by older people. Yeah, I get it. The game takes place in situations created by someone who lived during that time period but there was plenty of opportunity for Spielberg to give more than a passing hat tip to something that isn’t 30 years old.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about the technology and gaming aspects of the story. It is as if your grandfather had just heard about online gaming and decided to make a movie. “I have heard that you young people are creating online representations of yourselves called Avatars with blue spiky hair and banding together to play these shoot-em-up game online. And there is this thing called virtual reality. I’m going to tell all of my friends about it.” Spielberg is 72 years old. He very well could be a grandfather and that is great. But the film had room for youthful voices and I feel like they were ignored.
I totally get it if you disagree with me on this one. Trust me, I know this is Steven Spielberg and it is a return to the fun action films he used to make. I wanted to love this, guys, I really did. But I can’t. I don’t hate it either. It was just sort of lame. And I’m sorry, Spielberg, after giving us decades of tremendous movie experiences, you get held to a higher standard, my friend.
5 paws out of 10
As always, if you have a movie you think I should check out or you want to talk further about one of these reviews, drop me a line on Facebook.