The action-comedy genre has produced some true classics, but it's still very hard to do well and often results in mediocre movies. Likewise, it's even harder for spoof films to impress audiences. So it is with great enthusiasm I watch the trailer for Netflix's upcoming original film, Game Over, Man! This movie comes from and stars the guys behind Workaholics, and it looks to be a hilarious action-comedy that tells its own story while simultaneously referencing and making fun of the classics of the genre. To say anymore would spoil it, so go ahead and watch the trailer below.
The way this thing starts is amazing. Like all great spoofs, this trailer begins on a serious note with a hostage situation at a Los Angeles hotel. But as soon as we see Shaggy is one of the hostages, the hilarity begins as the three leads begin to sing his seminal song, "It Wasn't Me." Using the song as the soundtrack of the trailer is amazing and works surprisingly well for the action that follows. The pop culture and action movie references throughout are great and provide some of the trailer's laugh-out-loud moments. The hilarious dynamic among Adam Devine, Black Anderson and Anders Holm is just what you would expect from the trio, and is just as goofy and brotherly as it was in Workaholics.
Adam Devine has described Game Over, Man! as Die Hard, but with three idiot John McClanes, and that is definitely what we see here. This movie looks like it will tackle all of those action movie tropes in a hilarious fashion as the heroes fail upwards in their attempts to thwart the villains. The three leads even wind up in the classic John McClane uniform of a filthy, bloodstained undershirt. I wouldn't be surprised if they lose their shoes, too. The bad guys all in black suits, the badass female villain, it's all there. Even the title of the film is a reference to Bill Paxton's iconic and meme-able line from Aliens. It's fun to see this action-comedy going meta and referencing other iconic action films as the heroes in their ineptitude attempt to match what they saw in the movies.
One element of the film that is not in the trailer is that, according to the plot synopsis, the three maids/housekeepers are developing their own video game on the side, and the man financing it is one of the hostages. Perhaps this video game element will explain their confidence in this situation and should lead to some hilarious moments as they find out the difference between a first-person shooter and actually being shot at.
Fans of Comedy Central's Workaholics will have every reason to be confident in this film. In addition to Adam Devine and Blake Anderson, Anders Holm both stars in and is the screenwriter on Game Over, Man! Another Workaholics alum, Kyle Newacheck, is the director on the film. Game Over, Man! arrives on Netflix on March 23. For all of the other series, documentaries and movies hitting the streaming platform in the coming months, check out our premiere schedule.
