Movie Review – Game Over, Man

If I told you Kyle Newacheck was directing a comedy starring Adam Devine, Blake Anderson and Anders Holm as a trio of on-the-job slackers whose ridiculous antics somehow save the day, you’d probably think we were discussing the latest episode of Workaholics. Nay. We’d actually be discussing the latest Netflix Original, Game Over, Man!, premiering this week on the streaming service.

Alexxx (Devine), Rich (Anderson) and Darren (Holm) are three bumbling housekeeper/waiters for the Level Hotel, a swanky-hip Los Angeles establishment that plays host to a myriad of affluent VIPs and celebrities. One such guest is Bey Awadi (Utkarsh Ambudkar, Pitch Perfect) an internet billionaire who is throwing an exclusive party at the hotel. The trio of friends, looking to hustle their way out of the dead-end manservant business, pitch their radical video game idea to the wealthy businessman. As Bey considers the request, his party and the hotel are taken hostage by terrorists looking to extort hundreds of millions of dollars from the tech tycoon. Alexxx, Rich and Darren spring into action to save their benefactor, however, absolute mayhem ensues.

Game Over, Man! is a spoof on the original Die Hard movie starring Bruce Willis, but instead of a hardened tough-to-kill NYC cop, we get three incompetent accidental heroes. Everything else is virtually the same. Same high-rise setting, same bad guys, same black nerd hacker, same violent bloodshed and bad guy escape plan. In fact, Devine admits to ripping off Die Hard as an homage to their (our) favorite action franchise of all-time. The movie also borrows themes from Home Alone where the heroes use everyday objects to fend off – quite gruesomely actually – the intruding thugs. It’s not by accident that the Level Hotel Manager is none other than Daniel Stern, one of the Wet Bandits from the 1990 John Hughes-written comedy.

Let’s be honest, Game Over, Man! isn’t chasing any awards. Combining raunchy humor with extreme gore, it’s clear the film isn’t taking itself too seriously. Is it a good film? No, absolutely not. But it does get just enough right to be fairly entertaining on a bored night-in at home. If you were a fan of the outrageous Workaholics series on Comedy Central, then your bound to enjoy this too.