BUDDY GAMES

US, 2020, 90 minutes, Colour.
Dan Bakkerdahl, Kevin Dillon, Josh Duhamel, Olivia Munn, James Roday, Dax Shepard, Nick Swardson, Neal McDonough?.
Directed by Josh Duhamel.

Old saying: men will be boys. And a dawning realisation, though many must have commented on this, when you spell boy backward it becomes yob. And this film illustrates it for 90 minutes, six men, now middle-aged yobs (and as a psychologist remark long since, they are in ‘middlescence’), indulging in hyper- competitiveness, setting themselves physical tests, endurance tests (and the synopsis also noted “mental tests� but that is not particularly evident in the film). They are sexist and, not admitting it, misogynist. So, a question about the image of the 21st-century American male!

A couple of years ago there was a similar kind of film, Tag, which makes this something of a lesser cousin! This one is far more crass, crasser, crassest, in its humour, especially dwelling on male bodily parts (and their absence).

Josh Duhamel, enthusiastic throughout the film, takes a lot of responsibility, writing, producing, directing and taking a starring role. Three of the buddies have tolerable moments but the two hefty guys, Dan Bakkerdahl and Nick Swardson, with their rivalries, comeuppances, meanness, strive very hard to make the unfunny funny.

They make one realise that the characters can be called unlikable but, probably more accurately, dislikeable.

At the end, there is a false moment when Josh Duhamel’s character, in love with Olivia Munn (with whom audiences might identify at the end when vigorously and straight-aimedly, she martial arts the lot of them) a speech about what he really loves in life, what he wants for the rest of his life… Yes, it is his buddies and their forever sharing in these games!

Quoting a perceptive review from the IMDb: “if I were more immature, I would have enjoyed this�.