Game Over, Man! is a 2018 American action comedy film directed by Kyle Newacheck, written by Anders Holm, and starring himself, Adam DeVine, and Blake Anderson, all of whom previously collaborated on the sitcom Workaholics. The film follows three down-on-their-luck housekeepers who must save the day when the Los Angeles party they are at gets taken hostage. It was released on March 23, 2018, on Netflix.
Plot
Three friends who work as housekeepers at a luxury hotel in Los Angeles are on the verge of getting their video game financed when their potential benefactor is taken hostage by terrorists in a Die Hard-type scenario. The trio are then forced into rising to the occasion to save the lives of every hostage in the building.
On June 9, 2016, Netflix announced that it was producing Game Over, Man! with producers including Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver via their Point Grey banner; and Scott Rudin and Eli Bush via Scott Rudin Productions. Also producing are Adam DeVine, Anders Holm, Blake Anderson, and Kyle Newacheck, who collectively form the comedy group Mail Order Comedy, as well as Isaac Horne of Avalon Management.
Release
Marketing
On May 8, 2017, Netflix released the teaser trailer for the film and announced the release date as April 20, 2018. On January 4, 2018, Netflix released the first full-length trailer and announced that the release date had been moved up to March 23, 2018.
Game Over, Man! has been met with a generally negative response from critics. On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 19% approval rating with an average rating of 3.5 out of 10 based on 16 reviews. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 32 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". In a negative review, Glenn Kenny of The New York Times said, "This almost laugh-free comedy...is distinguished by a relentless level of outrageous yet strangely listless vulgarity." In a similarly negative review, Varietys Monica Castillo said "Game Over, Man! is a movie with few original ideas, plenty of tropes, and not enough love for the Bill Paxton Aliens character who made its eponymous catchphrase popular." Indiewires David Ehrlich was more mixed saying, "Game Over, Man! becomes to Workaholics what Keanu was to Key & Peele — a sporadically funny riff on a formula that worked much better in small doses. You know it’s a Netflix joint, because it almost feels designed to be half-watched in the background; an overly loud piece of muzak." In a somewhat positive review, Michael Rechtshaffen of the Los Angeles Times said "The guys occasionally over-reach for irreverence, director and fellow Workaholics veteran Kyle Newacheck mainly succeeds in delivering the most defiantly outrageous farce since Borat."
