Movie Night

• Designer: Peter C. Hayward
• Publisher: allplay
• Players: 1-10+
• Age: 7+
• Time: 5 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/44zVb7i
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Movie Night is a cooperative game where you and your friends try to think of the perfect movie to watch together. Tap into your collective movie knowledge and come up a movie everyone can agree on — before time runs out!

To start, place the Movie Has and Movie Doesn’t Have cards on the table.  Shuffle the description cards and draw 5 face down for the game. Have someone open a timer app on their phone and set it for 5 minutes.

At the start of the game , draw a card for the “Movie has…” column. For example: “Female Main Character.” When the group has named a movie matching that description, flip the next description card. If it fits the movie you just named, add the description to the “Movie doesn’t have…” column.

For example, for round one, Frozen was named as a movie with a Female Main Character. In round two, the description Animation was drawn. Now, the group has to name a movie that has a Female Main Character but doesn’t have Animation.

The Hunger Games!

Keep doing this until you flip five descriptions and name a final movie. Do this all within the time limit to win!  The rules then suggest that you watch that perfect movie with your group.  Fair warning, this changes the length of the game from 5 minutes to something closer to 90-120 minutes.

We ended up with Star Wars

My thoughts on the game

Well, this is a fun thing to do at a bar moreso than game night.  And… maybe better for people who actually watch a lot of movies!  If you’re one of those people, this game is a great way to remember all the cool flicks that you’ve seen in the past.  The game also assuredly always generates interesting side discussions as people recount how much they love (or hate) the movies being suggested.  

As I’m not a big movie watcher, I can usually help out a bit where there are only one or two categories on the table, but I honestly don’t have enough knowledge when we get up to the full complement of five; and heaven forbid I end up in the expert game of 7 categories in 7 minutes!

But… I have gotten a few really good movie recommendations, so my Netflix and Amazon Prime queue are brimming with movies mentioned from our last Movie Night session.  For film buffs and couch potatoes, this is a great game to bust out at a party.  Heck, you might even be able to use it as a way for a group to decide what movie to watch!

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/44zVb7i