Film Review: Game Night

The Game‘s afoot in breezy, fun new comedy

Game Night doesn’t exactly go as planned for Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams).

The writing/directing team of actor John Francis Daley (who played Sweets in the long-running and slightly addictive Bones) and Jonathan Goldstein made their directorial debut three years ago with the poorly received Vacation remake. They fared better with two pictures they wrote but didn’t direct: Horrible Bosses (2011) and Horrible Bosses 2 (2014); this reviewer isn’t at all embarrassed to admit that she laughed so hard during the first Horrible Bosses that she nearly hyperventilated. With Game Night, the team’s second feature directing project, Daley and Goldstein do the opposite, though, and only direct, leaving the script to screenwriter Mark Perez. That may explain why this film, which also similarly stars affable everyman Jason Bateman, doesn’t reach the comedic heights of those prior two films. But this new collaboration has resulted in a pleasant and highly amusing comedy with a sensational cast, and it yields enough genuine laughs to recommend it.
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Film Feature: 2016 Sundance Film Festival Spotlights #3

Sundance Photo 3

With this third and final post, Spinning Platters completes its coverage of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, which ended on Jan. 30th.  All the winners can be found here (and our other two posts about this year’s Festival can be found here and here).

Our coverage concludes with a look at four more feature films and two more documentaries. As a reminder, we are using our patented Viewing Priority Level (VPL) Guide to advise you accordingly: Continue reading “Film Feature: 2016 Sundance Film Festival Spotlights #3”

Film Review: Carol

The price of love: Blanchett, Mara deliver powerful performances in period romance

Carol (Cate Blanchett, l.) shares a tender moment with Therese (Rooney Mara).

Director Todd Haynes returns to familiar settings and themes in his new film Carol, a picture that can be considered a companion piece to his excellent 2002 film Far from Heaven. Both films are set on the east coast in the 1950s, and both concern the suppression of true selves and true loves under the weight of a repressive and unaccepting society.

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Film Review: “Super 8”

Kyle Chandler, Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, and Ron Eldard in SUPER 8

starring: Kyle Chandler, Elle Fanning, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich, Joel Courtney, Ryan Lee, Zach Mills, Ryan Griffiths, Gabriel Basso, AJ Michalka

written and directed by: J.J. Abrams

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, language and some drug use.

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