Game Over, Man! (2018)

“Game Over, Man!” stars Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, Blake Anderson, Jere Burns, and Mac Brandt.  Released on Netflix on March 23, 2018, the film is about a group of friends who must save the day when terrorists invade a Los Angeles party.

The film is directed by Kyle Newacheck, who served as one of the creators of Workaholics.  This latest Netflix film I’ll be looking at today shows what would happen if they remade “Die Hard” into an action comedy and replace Bruce Willis with the three main characters from Workaholics.  I haven’t been a huge follower of Workaholics, which ended its seventh and final season last March, but I have been following Adam DeVine for quite some time since he made himself known in the Pitch Perfect films.  Some of his roles were far from perfect, but he has those types of moments that are impossible for me to resist.  This is DeVine’s second Netflix film that he’s in this year, with his first being “When We First Met” back in February, and based on my experience with it, this is also his weakest effort in his career so far.

When they have a concept that combines the essence of the action classic “Die Hard” with the raunchy and idiotic appeal of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s other R-rated comedies, they could’ve created something that’s truly outrageous and vulgar.  Well, they got the “vulgar” part right, but the “outrageous” part was severely lacking.  Not only did the comedy fell way below its hilarious standards, but its amount of vulgarity and graphic body parts, including a man’s severed penis, struggled to impress people who aren’t into these types of comedies.  Even its cliched (and also stupid) action-comedy storyline and the characters didn’t offer a lot of big moments to prevent itself from being thrown into the “forgettable” barrel.  It got off to a good start during the first five minutes, but then it got to the point where they tried a bit too hard to force out a laugh.  This is pretty disappointing considering the fact that it’s made by the same guys who made Workaholics a success.  On the plus side, much of the cast did their part in making the film watchable.  DeVine, Holm, and Anderson had some pretty entertaining chemistry together, but in some parts, it felt like they’re having a difficult time in maintaining that comedic flow.  Even DeVine, who manages to make me laugh in every film he’s been in, was struggling to find some chuckles.  It’s like a failed stand-up comedy show where you got something going there during the first few minutes, but then afterwards, you get stuck trying to find some more laugh-worthy jokes, so you decided to wing it in the most embarrassing way possible.

Overall, the concept in “Game Over, Man!” is indeed outrageously dumb, but its execution feels more like a poof rather than a bang.  Even though the entire cast was tolerable at best, Kyle Newacheck’s non-Workaholics project is another wanna-be Saturday Night Live skit that failed to live up to its insane premise.  If you’re into raunchy comedies, whether they’re good or just plain dumb, you may or may not like this one.  If not, then it’s not worth your time.

D