Gatlopp: Hell of a Game (USA, 2022)

 

"Here's to those who wish us well, and all the rest can go to hell!" 

 

Going by the basic plot, the main inspiration behind Gatlopp, the feature film directorial debut of director Alberto Belli, is undeniably the (currently) five-film Jumanji franchise, in particularly the first two analogue-based adventures, Jumanji (1995 / trailer) and Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005 / trailer). Only this time around, instead of kiddies caught in an adventure board game that they must finish to exit, we now have four former, somewhat-estranged friends caught in a drinking board game that they must finish before sunrise or they will be stuck playing it in hell for all eternity.

Trailer to

Gatlopp:

The falling dominoes that lead to the four former friends gathering together is the impromptu party perpetual party boy Cliff (Jon Bass of Among the Beasts [2023 / trailer] and Ratter [2015 / trailer]) throws for his old friend Paul (Jim Mahoney, the movie's scriptwriter), who has lost his house and whose wife Alice (Shelley Henning of Ouija [2014 / trailer] and Unfriended [2014 / trailer]) has just left him for a Hollywood dick named Andre (John Ales of Murder at Yellowstone City [2022 / trailer] and Crime Killer [1987 / trailer]). Both busy Sam (Emmy Raver-Lampman of The Beekeeper [2024 / trailer]) and lower-echelon Hollywood pretty boy Dominic (Sarunas J. Jackson), like Paul, hope for a quick hello and goodbye, but before you can say "contrived reasons" they settle down on the couch to catch up on old times while swinging back the shots required by the obscure board game Cliff found in his newly procured credenza (that's a sideboard for those outside of the US of Trump). Unluckily, as people tend to do, they begin the game without fully reading the rules....

Despite its obvious inspiration, Gatlopp does a good job at tossing its own dice to become an extremely entertaining horror comedy that is less horror than comedy. Low budget, the indie production literally remains housebound most of the time — there is a truly inspired visual gag that relates to opening a window for help — but oddly it never feels cramped or cheap. For that, director Alberto Belli must be given credit for his fun, creative eye: he never delves into the hectic, but nevertheless keeps everything solidly paced and occasionally throws in some nice visually cinematic flourishes that never devolve into the obnoxious. (One can easily imagine a notable career could be in the cards for him.) Sarunas J. Jackson and Emmy Raver-Lampman deserve special notice for the period of time during which they have to literally play each other when their bodies swap: they sell it completely.

While the movie is hardly a deep treatise on friendship and failure and relationships and growing apart and forgiveness, it does nod its head at all five points as it works its way to its hoped-for (if not instantly expectable) resolution. The four actors might not exactly all click on screen at first sight, but before long they all reveal good chemistry and good timing, and by the end the of the movie one can truly believe that they were once not just good friends but might now be true friends again. 

Unluckily, scriptwriter Jim Mahoney almost blows the whole movie apart with his final extremely cheap and mean "gag", which not only probably dooms a lot of people to hell but undermines all the apparent personal and emotional growth of his character Paul, revealing him to be, at heart, a vengeful and irresponsible asshole. (But then, aren't we all?)

Nevertheless, Gatlopp on the whole remains a well-directed and well-acted and enjoyably funny little movie that neither overstays its welcome nor deserves its obscurity. You probably won't be rolling on the floor in laughter, but you'll definitely smile and laugh a lot more than is the case with many more famous comedies.

A public service announcement from a wasted life: