I’m curious what unholy contract Netflix has with Adam Devine. After watching Workaholics and movies like Pitch Perfect, they probably thought it was worth a shot to give the usually funny dude a few movies where he’s the leading man. Results aren’t Adam Sandler bad, but they’re mediocre. Game Over, Man! teams Devine up with his Workaholic buddies Anders Holm and Blake Anderson to do a Die Hard ripoff, which sounds like it could be fun. But “sounds like fun” and actual fun are two different things.
Alexxx (Devine, who already had me rolling my eyes with that name) sees himself as the idea pitch man for his ideas man Joel (Blake Anderson) and technician Darren (Anders Holm). The three never really go anywhere though, being housekeepers at a hotel managed by by-the-numbers Cassie (Aya Cash) and run by creeper Mitch (Daniel Stern). Fate intervenes in good and bad ways: Youtube star Bae Awadi (Utkarsh Ambukar) is throwing a party at the club, eager to throw money around to piss off his manager Mr. Ahmad (Jamie Demetriou), but at the same time, a group of terrorists led by Conrad (Neal McDonough) and Erma (Rhona Mitra) have decided to take Bae hostage to extract some money from him.
This movie feels like a hold over from the Apatow comedies of over a decade ago (Seth Rogen is a producer). The leads of this movie are deadly afraid to appear as anything less than macho men, so much so that the gay guy among them remains closeted for fear of who he is. Yes, they can be supportive of him, but it’s pretty clear from the screenplay that physical male intimacy is more scary than anything else. Case in point: there’s a set up for an amusing scene where two gay henchmen (that’s not a thing in action movies, so a good idea to explore) start to make love to each other. Instead of embracing this, the movie cuts around the perfectly lovely act of love making of two people who care about each other. Not 40 seconds earlier, the henchmen open a closet where a character is playing dead by auto erotic asphyxiation, holding his penis in one of his hands. It’s a strange double standard that doesn’t really make any sense. This kind of half assed decision making applies pretty much everywhere, especially with the leads who get one note to play and have zero range to pull off any dramatic weight the movie is going for. Devine and his buddies prove yet again that TV or supporting roles are where they belong, but they’re just not good enough yet to be leading movie men.
So with no characters to really invest in and weird gender politics, all you’re watching Game Over, Man! for is the gags and references. Not all of them are bad, but the good ones come too little to late. The first 30 minutes of this movie has almost zero laughs, so you’re already zoning out. Things get better when the terrorists arrive. Neal McDonough plays against type a little bit in really fun ways after a twist. The fights are not quite Pineapple Express levels of funny, but they are amusing enough, in particular ones in the spa and the use of the video game controller the group is creating. But moments like that are bookended by something “funny” like a severed penis or a drug habit that leads to nowhere, usually from the Workaholics boys. The supporting cast actually gets most of the big laughs here, especially Utkarsh Ambukar who’s dialing it up to 11 as a crazy YouTuber, and some very well used cameos. But all moments that are great are fleeting, reminding you that you’re just waiting for the next awful death or strange fight or drug trip.
I’m growing more and more frustrated with Netflix’s original movie content. Game Over, Man! continues to prove that they’re just throwing money at a problem and not figuring out what they can actually do to make the products better. Here’s an idea: grab Dee Rees again (she made your Oscar nominated best film so far) and give her some more money to make something great, and stop giving money to the 13th lead in Pitch Perfect, hoping he’ll deliver.