Adam Devine, Blake Anderson, and Anders Holm may go by different names in Netflix’s Game Over, Man!–Alexxx, Joel, and Darren, respectively–but they’re basically still doing their Workaholics characters. Netflix’s latest original comedy is a variation on everything Workaholics fans love; it wouldn’t be surprising at all to learn that Game Over, Man! began as a Workaholics movie, or an idea for a parody episode where the boys recreate Die Hard as only they could: dumber, gorier, meaner, and extremely funny.
Recommending Game Over, Man!–or not–is easy: If you liked Workaholics, which ended its seven-season run on Comedy Central just over a year ago, you will probably like this movie. And if you found the show puerile and obnoxious, go ahead and pick one of Netflix’s hundreds of other original movies or original TV series instead. This movie was even directed by Kyle Newacheck, the starring trio’s Workaholics co-creator, frequent episode director, and occasional guest star (as the gang’s drug dealer and fellow misfit Karl), and it was written by Holm.
The story follows Alexxx, Joel, and Darren, three hotel housekeepers who dream of hitting it big with their latest scheme, a full body-controlled video game called “Skintendo.” When a rich Instagram star–Utkarsh Ambudkar’s obnoxious but likable Bey–throws a party at their hotel, the gang decide to pitch him on Skintendo in the hope he’ll invest. Their plan is derailed when a group of terrorists led by the charismatic Conrad (Neal McDonough) and the psychopathic Irma (Rhona Mitra) take the partygoers hostage to extort Bey’s fortune. Our heroes skulk around the hotel trying not to get killed while thwarting the bad guys, mostly by accident or dumb luck.
The “Dew Crew,” as they call themselves–because they love Mountain Dew–are playing versions of their Workaholics characters. Devine’s Alexxx–three Xs–is an immature, drug-dealing man baby bursting with terrible ideas, Holm’s Darren is an insecure drug addict, and Anderson’s Joel–nickname “Baby Dunk”–is just Anderson, but not-so-secretly gay. They’re supported by a hodgepodge of a cast, including Daniel Stern as the hotel’s sleazy manager, Aya Cash as their hapless co-worker, and party guests including Joel McHale, Fred Armisen, Action Bronson, Shaggy, Steve-O, and Mark Cuban as themselves.
Game Over, Man! isn’t shy about its influences. One of the funniest jokes comes when the terrorists’ hacker–Sam Richardson’s Donald–insists that they didn’t bring him along just “because I look like the black nerd from Die Hard,” and he’s sick of hearing about it. There are also a weird number of (granted, hilarious) references to the 1997 Robin Williams movie Flubber.
The crew take full advantage of their freedom from cable’s content restrictions, though not necessarily in the ways you might expect. Game Over, Man! must have a record number of penises in it, for example, including one that gets severed from its owner early on and returns later as a gross but gut-busting sight gag. This movie is also surprisingly gory, but always in a low budget way that makes exploding heads look like bursting water balloons full of fake blood.
It’s also not pulling any punches, whether it comes to the various celebrities at Bey’s party or his adorable little chihuahua. Nobody is safe in this movie, which is admittedly fun, though it does go a little too far in a couple of scenes.
By the end, the Dew Crew has scraped together what amounts to a semi-decent plan to save the hotel’s remaining guests and convince Bey to invest in Skintendo (don’t think for a second they lose sight of that dream, even as the bodies drop around them). That’s after several terrible, failed plans and multiple bloody, hilarious scraps in which they count their bad guy kills like it’s a video game. That includes one weirdly heartwarming run-in with two very murderous, very gay thugs who the boys attack as they’re distracting one another in bed.
There are plenty more good gags, fight scenes that will make you cringe with the creativity of their cartoonishly over-the-top violence, and stunts that include the gang hanging on an ironing board suspended a dozen stories up, and sending a Weekend at Bernie‘s-style animated corpse into a room full of machine gun-toting thugs.
Game Over, Man! isn’t smart, essential, or particularly well made. But it is a funny, blatant Die Hard tribute made by four friends whose specific brand of stoner-bro humor has earned them enough fans to justify their continued collaboration. If you count yourself among those fans, enjoy.
| The Good | The Bad |
|---|---|
| Workaholics‘ signature sense of humor | Goes too far in a couple of scenes |
| Cartoonish, over-the-top violence | Inherently dumb humor won’t appeal to everyone |
| Great supporting cast | |
| The “Dew Crew” are on point |
