Game Night, Fun Night

There’s not a lot that we ask of our comedy films these days – as an audience, we want to have fun, and we want to be entertained. Most comedy can do that in short bursts, but one of the things comedy has been lacking (as of late) is one of the most important components of really enjoying the movie – restraint. Most movies are willing to try anything and everything to make their audience let loose at least a giggle, no matter how gross, raunchy, or controversial. Sometimes a lack of restraint can work – sometimes everything is funny because of how it is delivered, no matter how tasteless the actual joke is. In the case of Game Night, however, restraint is why the comedy works. The cast works together wonderfully and the jokes hit the way they should, not because they are wild and shoot for whatever they think will be funny, but because they are planned, coordinated, and know exactly when to stop themselves, keeping jokes both funny and tasteful. Game Night is a good night, a fun night, and definitely one that could inspire some game nights of your own.

A United Kingdom of Several Stories

*Warning: Potential Spoilers*

Telling a story that happened in real life is always difficult for a movie to do. Most of the time there are so many events within one big story that it is difficult to tell any of them fully, or to figure out which ones are the important ones, the ones that need the majority of time devoted to them to make the entire event make sense. A United Kingdom is no different – while it tells the story of a couple whose marriage helped forge an entire country, there are many different stories that take place on the road to that country uniting behind that couple, and so this nearly two hour movie must tell several stories without dragging itself out and putting its emphasis in the correct place. What A United Kingdom chose to do was emphasize the love story and tell the story of a country’s unification as a resulting side story. This is a bit of a disappointment, because the love story is shaky, but the story of how Bechuanaland became Botswana is rock solid.

Galavant: Second Season Starts Flat

*Warning: Potential Spoilers for first two episodes*

The five-week medieval extravaganza known as Galavant returned to ABC last Sunday after the enthusiastic response to its first season, complete with a new opening song and quest for our hero Galavant (Joshua Sasse) to complete in ten episodes for the next few weeks. Sadly, however, the show is so focused on celebrating its return to the air (despite the criticism and uncertainty after last season) that they seem to have lost sight of why Galavant was enjoyable in the first place- it wasn’t all about playing with the fourth wall and using modern day terms, those were just minor notes in the fun and musical adventure. From what I’ve seen in the first two episodes of this season, however, those are going to be the details we get the most of this year.