'Game Night' plays with winning combo of comedy and action

“Game Night” - ★ ★ ★

In the manically paced, deceptively plotted comic mystery “Game Night,” a married couple must learn to use their communication skills, to instantly adapt to changing circumstances, to deal with icky stuff, and to trust and rely on each other in preparation for the most terrifying decision of their lives: whether to have a baby.

Granted, “Game Night” doesn't appear to be a primer on how to be a first-time parent, but clearly screenwriter Mark Perez had that in mind as the underlying benefit for Max and Annie (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams), if they survive a fun evening gone horribly haywire.

The competitive Max and Annie instantly bond when they meet while playing games. Now married, they hold game nights with friends.

One night, Max's handsome, successful and highly competitive brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler) undermines Max by inviting everyone to his place to participate in an enhanced role-playing game.

“You're not going to know what's real and what's fake,” Brooks brags.

So when two armed thugs break into the house and kidnap Brooks, Max, Annie and their friends ooh and ahhh over the realistic way the actors carry out the abduction. But we know better, don't we?

“Game Night” shifts into a full-throttle, all-night action thriller, something akin to Martin Scorsese's “After Hours” on nitrous oxide.

The unsuspecting game players quickly become suspecting as they set out to find and rescue Brooks. They run into kidnappers, fake federal agents (we think), a nasty crime kingpin (a deliciously villainous Danny Huston) and search for a Faberge egg that could be a classic Hitchcockian macguffin.

“Game Night” twists and turns like a pinwheel in a hurricane, with Barry Peterson's restless camera lens executing an intricate tracking shot involving an epic game of Keep Away between pursuing thugs and the heroes as they breathlessly toss the Faberge egg to each other while racing through a two-story mansion.

The secret to the quick pace, according to the production notes, is that directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (who co-wrote “Horrible Bosses” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming”) treated “Game Night” as if it were a regular action thriller.

The pace could also be influenced by the Wheeling-born Daley, once an overactive kid who opted to earn a black belt in kung fu rather than take Ritalin for his hyperactivity. (For a profile of Daley, to go http://bit.ly/2C6olQ9.)

“Game Night” benefits from a strong supporting cast, especially Jesse Plemons as Gary, an emotionally needy neighbor who desperately wants to be included in Max's group.

Last seen as a buttoned-up, corporate newspaper attorney in “The Post,” Plemons evokes a rainbow of adjectives: pathetic, sad, scary, intimidating and downright strange.

Lamorne Morris and Kylie Bunbury play Max and Annie's game pals Kevin and Michelle, who've been inseparable since junior high school. Until a game of “Have You Ever?” puts Michelle in hot water with Kevin - and Denzel Washington,

Billy Magnussen creates a lovable, dopey goofball in Ryan, Max's dimwitted friend coupled with Sharon Horgan's exasperated, comically underplayed British date, Sarah.

They inject this funny film with just enough realism to make us feel threatened, relieved and elated. Maybe even prepared to take on the scary challenges of parenthood.

<b>Starring:</b> Jason Bateman, Rachel McAdams, Kyle Chandler, Jesse Plemons, Danny Huston

<b>Directed by:</b> John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein

<b>Other:</b> A New Line Cinema release. Rated R for language, sexual references, violence. 94 minutes