BUDDY GAMES

The annual and honoured tradition of the Buddy Games held by Bob "The Bobfather" (Duhamel, 'Transformers: The Last Knight') for his group of childhood best friends comes to a grinding halt when Shelly (Dan Bakkedahl, TV's 'The Goldbergs') is permanently and horrifically injured. Five years later, Shelly's mental health has taken a nosedive, and so Bob is emboldened to restart the Buddy Games. This time around, it seems that Shelly isn't the only one of the boys who's fallen on hard times, and so a pot of $150,000 is put up for whoever emerges victorious, as well as pride and a bucket... literally, a bucket with your name written on it in Sharpie. So, who will win? Who needs the money most? And who will unleash their inner turmoil to their best mates because that's what friends are for?

Upon completion of this film, I likened it to eating KFC: it feels good in the moment, but once it's all over the shame sets in and you wonder what you're doing with your life to have ended up here. Sure, 'Buddy Games' has a couple laughs - but at whose expense? Are we laughing at them, or with them? Why are men so gross? And why, no, seriously, why was Olivia Munn in this movie? Her character made no sense and was embarrassingly tokenistic.

As far as Josh Duhamel's filmmaking skills go, he needs a lot of work. Production-wise, 'Buddy Games' is very pedestrian. As a storyteller - well, it helps if you have a story. And screenwriting... the cast made this script pop when there was little to no snap or crackle. Nick Swardson ('Jack and Jill') carries the whole film, and you can tell he's working really hard to do so. It's exhausting to watch at times.

Despite efforts to wrap this film in a friendship bow to balance out the toxic BS, it doesn't succeed. Audiences aren't stupid. Sure, we indulge in campy, tacky romances and Christmas fare from time to time, but at least those films are honest about what they are trying to be. 'Buddy Games' tries too hard to be funny, whimsical and cool, and it fails at every turn.