Game Night (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Oct 23, 2024
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
John Francis Daley, Jonathan GoldsteinRelease Date(s)
2018 (August 13, 2024)Studio(s)
Warner Bros. Pictures (Warner Home Video)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: B+
- Extras Grade: D
Review
Five years before directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein pointed their sights at the world of fantasy role playing games with the delightful Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, they took aim at the broader gaming culture in general with Game Night—and they took a few pot shots at David Fincher in the process, too. That’s due in no small part to the fact that writer Mark Perez’s story for Game Night is a pretty blatant riff on John Brancato and Michael Ferris’ script for The Game. Yet while Fincher had used their idea of a live action role-playing game run amok as a vehicle to explore personal trauma, familial guilt, and rampant paranoia, Daley and Goldstein stripped away the layers of metaphor and took the concept at face value. Game Night is a tale of deception set in a world where deception is an inherent part of good gamesmanship, so it openly celebrates the ability to take others by surprise. All’s fair in love and war, but anything goes when gaming sessions are involved.
Game Night opens with a flashback that shows how Max and Annie Davis (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) got together. They met during a bar trivia contest, recognized their common interests, and one thing naturally led to another. That includes their choice of friends, all of whom are also avid gamers: Kevin and Michelle Sterling (Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury), plus Ryan (Billy Magnussen) and whomever he happens to be dating at the time—in this case, his reluctant co-worker Sarah (Sharon Horgan). It doesn’t include their next-door neighbor Gary (Jesse Plemons), who desperately wants to join their inner gaming circle but he’s just too socially maladroit for everyone else to bear. Max’s competitive spirit extends to his own family members, especially his richer and more successful brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler). When Brooks suddenly appears at one of their game nights, he tells everyone that he’s paid for an interactive murder mystery experience that they’ll never forget. Yet once the game’s afoot, everything quickly spirals out of control, forcing the competitors to work together in order to win the game of Life.
While Perez is the only credited screenwriter on Game Night, Daley and Goldstein told Vulture that they rewrote his script extensively, retaining most of his structure but heavily revising the characters and the dialogue. That’s easy to believe, because the whole films reeks not just of their love of games, but also of their love for the people who play them. (Perez acknowledged their contributions to the script and said that he was “psyched” about their changes.) As a result, Game Night is a love story on every possible level, with games being the primary love that holds everyone and everything else together. Max and Annie had a meet-cute over games; they got married as gamers; they forged their friendships over game playing; and they’re able to survive Brooks’ machinations because of their gaming skills. None of this is treated as being nerdy or abnormal (well, with the possible exception of Gary, anyway). Instead, it’s presented as being natural and healthy. That’s a rarity in Hollywood filmmaking, or at least it was until Daley and Goldstein pulled out all the stops with their magnum opus Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Game Night does make the point that Max’s competitive nature can be something of a barrier between him and other people, especially in terms of how it has defined his relationship with Brooks. He’s lived in his brother’s shadow for so long that he has essentially given up the game between the two of them. Yet like everything else in Game Night, even that isn’t quite as simple as it appears on the surface. The reality is that Brooks has been playing games on a completely different level, while Max has led his own life in a far more authentic fashion. Max has stayed true to himself, and that’s why he’s an emotionally healthier individual than Brooks is, regardless of any personal hangups that he might still possess. It’s also why he has such a healthy relationship with Annie. They’ve played the game of Life on their own terms no matter where the wheel may land, and that’s what has helped to keep them together regardless of the circumstances—including the consequences of Brook’s hapless spins of the wheel. In Game Night, the family that plays together really does stay together, happily ever after.
Cinematographer Barry Peterson captured Game Night digitally at 2.8K (ARRIRAW) and 8K (Redcode RAW) resolutions using Arri Alexa XT Plus, Alexa Mini, and Red Epic-W Helium cameras with Cooke S4/i lenses. (The “game’s eye view” shots appear to have been filmed with a tilt-shift lens, but there’s enough digital enhancement involved that it’s difficult to tell if they really were, or if it’s just an effect that was created later by the visual effects team.) Post-production work was completed as a 2K Digital Intermediate, framed at 2.39:1 for its theatrical release. For this version, the 2K DI has been upscaled to 4K and graded for High Dynamic Range in both Dolby Vision and HDR10.
While there’s usually a benefit to upscaling at the uncompressed source, especially where higher capture resolutions are involved, in this case the improvements in perceived resolution are negligible. That said, everything still looks crisper and cleaner thanks to a significantly higher bitrate than the previous Blu-ray could offer. There’s no trace of distracting compression artifacts or smeared textures to mar the image. Still, it’s the HDR grade that makes the biggest difference. The contrast range is stronger, with deeper black levels and sharp highlights from practical light sources like the street lamps. The varied color palette is reproduced accurately, from the warm, welcoming glow of the calm before the storm to the cooler, more ominous tones of the trip through the underworld. There seems to be more nuance to the color spectrum than there was on Blu-ray. Yes, it’s a subtle upgrade, but an upgrade nonetheless.
Audio is offered in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English subtitles. Game Night was released theatrically in 5.1, so this appears to be the original mix. While it’s not necessarily aggressive in terms of immersion, it’s still got some real heft to it, especially in regards to the score by the redoubtable Cliff Martinez and the various pieces of source music. The sound effects do spring to life once things start to go horribly wrong, especially during the chase scenes and the finale. It’s a solid mix that supports the overall tone of Game Night quite well.
Typical for Warner Bros. these days, their 4K Ultra HD release of Game Night is pretty much bare bones—there’s no Blu-ray, Digital code, or even a slipcover included. Even the menu design is as bare-bones as it gets, without so much as a chapter selection option. The extras are minimal, too, and both of them are ported over from the previous Blu-ray release in HD:
- An Unforgettable Evening: The Making of Game Night (3:48)
- Gag Reel (6:48)
An Unforgettable Evening is standard EPK fare, and at less than four minutes, it barely even qualifies as that. Yet the Gag Reel is a pleasant surprise, because it’s not the standard fluff reel that was created for the cast and crew at the wrap party. Instead, it’s an honest-to-goodness collection of real outtakes, some of which are pretty amusing. Still, while Game Night is the kind of film that stands or falls on its own merits, it would have benefitted from a few more extras with the active participation of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, like the ones that Paramount included on Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. In that case, the directors were given the opportunity to provide some insights into their thoughts about bringing the world of gaming to the screen. Here, they’re completely MIA. It’s a lackluster release from Warner Bros., but there’s where we’re at these days. On the other hand, Game Night really does speak for itself, and the subtle but noticeable improvements in video quality does make this UHD the best way to experience the film.
- Stephen Bjork
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