Reitman’s take on SNL‘s first episode is as much fun as the show itself
Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) surveys sketch ideas for the first episode of his new live show, Saturday Night.
That the new film Saturday Night opens this Friday, October 11th, is no accident. Exactly 49 years ago to the date, Saturday Night, the original title of the iconic late night sketch show Saturday Night Live premiered on NBC. Director Jason Reitman’s movie, which dramatizes the chaos immediately preceding the airing of that first trailblazing episode, is the perfect homage to the long-running live program that is about to enter an incredible 50th season.
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. Continue reading “Film Review: Game Night“
