My Own Little World

I love dark humor. It always has a way of sticking out way more than conventional humor because it grabs me with its shock value, and when it’s done well, it can make me laugh harder and longer than just about anything else. Game Night thrives on this kind of comedy, which is part of what makes it as good as it is. I honestly was not expecting much of this movie when I saw the marketing for it, but it actually is a really solid film. It utilizes its premise very well, it twists its plot around in the right ways, and it also has some solid comedy that often takes a darker turn, further bolstered by great comedic performances. The premise of a friendly game night is one that I’m guessing most can relate to, and its familiarity makes Game Night so easy to latch onto. For one, it is not a premise that Hollywood has touched before, so that helps it tons; however, it also pokes a lot of fun at itself and furthermore the concept of groups of couples hanging out together. If it h...

Warning: I will minorly spoil this movie in this post.  I have this thing with romance movies, that thing being that most of them are really, really not good. There is a definite formula to the genre that I think is becoming so overused that any film eschewing it for something different (*cough* Silver Linings Playbook *cough*) becomes one of the best of the genre in my mind. I kind of wish this wasn't the case, especially now that I am in a very committed relationship with someone who happens to love these movies. However, a couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend somehow got me to actually sit down and watch The Notebook  with her, and I realized something about this formula: there's a reason it's there, and I'd like to bet that that reason is The Notebook . It was successful among audiences, bringing in over five times its budget at the box office, as well as garnering a bit of a cult following in the years since its release. People love the unabashed sentimentality...