From John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, the team that crapped out the saddening remake of Vacation, comes something a bit more tolerable. As the competitive couple whose weekly game-playing ritual turns deadly after an even more cutthroat participant brings a corpse to the party, Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman spark and maintain enough comedic chemistry to make things tolerable even when Mark Perez’s (The Country Bears) script lets them down. (McAdams hasn’t fully tapped into her funny side since playing mean girl Regina George and try as I might to like one of Jason Bateman’s big screen comedies, the laughs — providing there are some — have been few and far between.) An infectious moment where the gag-reflexing pair exchange hacks found me hocking up popcorn hulls and even more unexpectedly awesome was a one-take, CG-embroidered indoor chase scene. Credit Kyle Chandler and Jesse Plemons with many of the film’s laughs. (2018) — Scott Marks
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