Family values and much enjoyable humor are offset by
numerous distasteful jokes and an excess of vulgar language in this comedy from
directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. A competition-loving
couple (Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams) find their usually placid game night
transformed when his suave brother (Kyle Chandler) comes to town for a visit
and arranges a fake kidnapping that the duo and their friends (Lamorne Morris,
Kylie Bunbury, Billy Magnussen and Sharon Horgan) will have to vie with each
other to solve. As the audience realizes before the characters do, something
all-too-authentically criminal soon begins to unfold amid the entertainment.
Though the film's premise rests on an unlikely coincidence, and a couple of its
sight gags are quite gory, those few grownups for whom it makes suitable fare
will note the portrayal of a strong marriage and a positive view of parenthood
in Mark Perez's script.
Watch out for: Much sexual
humor, more than a dozen uses of profanity and several milder oaths, pervasive
rough and crude language.
Rated: L, limited adult audience, films whose
problematic content many adults would find troubling; MPAA: R
© Arlington Catholic Herald 2018