A Dark, Violent Jason Bateman Comedy Is A Streaming Hit
Jason Bateman's Game Night has broken into Amazon Prime Video's Top 10 movies streamed.
Those who love games like Dungeons & Dragons will likely sympathize with the couple at the heart of the film Game Night, now streaming on Amazon Prime. As the name implies, this film follows a couple (played by comedy legend Jason Bateman and Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran Rachel McAdams) whose tabletop adventures turn real once one of their friends gets kidnapped. And while the movie was largely overlooked at the time of its release, FlixPatrol reports that it’s a hit on Amazon, breaking into the Top 10 this week.
Generally speaking, the premise of the film is simple. Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams’ characters love to play games of all stripes, so they tentatively begin a game proposed by Kyle Chandler, who plays Bateman’s insanely successful brother. The brother has created a mystery game and he even offers his beloved Corvette Stingray as a prize to the winner, so when he gets kidnapped in front of their very eyes, the players treat this as part of the game.
Interestingly, Jason Bateman championed this movie very nearly from the beginning. Once producer John Fox and writer Mark Perez pitched the idea for the movie to Bateman, he fell in love with it even before the movie was sold to New Line Cinemas. Bateman initially wanted to both act in and direct the film, and he only stepped back from his intentions to direct after he discovered that the movie’s new screenwriters, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, wanted to helm the movie themselves.
While casting Jason Bateman in a comedy film is a no-brainer, the casting of Rachel McAdams as his onscreen love interest was a bit more inspired. At the time, she was known for The Notebook, Mean Girls, and her appearance in the first Doctor Strange film, and with her reprising the role for both the What If…? series and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s fair to say she is still primarily known for playing a serious character in the MCU. But her appearances in everything from Wedding Crashers to Robert Downey Jr.’s Sherlock Holmes films were proof enough that she had the comedic chops necessary for Game Night.
As far as Hollywood films go, this movie never did generate much buzz, but it was a critical and commercial hit when it was first released. This Jason Bateman movie has a very high critical score of 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and earned a cool $117.7 million at the box office. Since the film was made for only $37 million, the box office made this movie a genuine success, but don’t hold your breath for a sequel: despite laying the groundwork for a sequel, the directors have no intention of making a follow-up film because they simply don’t think it would be as good as the first.
And while Jason Bateman was never in danger of getting an Oscar for this movie, it did garner more major awards and nominations than anyone could have foreseen. For example, the film was nominated for the Critics’ Choice Best Comedy award, and both Bateman and McAdams were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. Bateman was also nominated for Best Comedic Performance by the San Diego Film Critics Society, and while he didn’t win, the society did award Game Night for both Best Editing and Best Ensemble.
That latter award is meant to highlight the awesome casting of this movie, and we have to admit that the cast alone makes this film worth streaming. In addition to Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams, the movie features such excellent talents as Jesse Plemons, Kyle Chandler, Chelsea Peretti, and Sharon Horgan. Each of the principal cast is funny on their own and hilarious together, making this the perfect film to put on when you want to just sit back and experience some chill and fun vibes.
If nothing else, it’s worth watching this movie to see Jason Bateman at his comedic best. In recent years, we’ve been seeing a more serious side of this actor thanks to his starring in the hit show Ozark. We’re probably just a few short years away from him headlining yet another damn Yellowstone spinoff in his bid for a dramatic Emmy, so there is no time like the present to enjoy him cutting up in this quirky comedy.
