Review: The ‘Workaholics’ crew reunites for raunchy Netflix comedy ‘Game Over, Man!’

Not to be confused with Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” which arrives next week, “Game Over, Man!” is an unrepentantly raunchy throwback action-comedy that would have earned a hard R rating had it landed in theaters instead of on Netflix.

The feature reunites Adam Devine, Anders Holm (also the screenwriter) and Blake Anderson as geek buddies Alexxx, Darren and Joel, in a logical extension of the dynamic between the characters they played on Comedy Central’s “Workaholics.”

Biding time working as housekeepers at a swank L.A. hotel until they hit it big with one of their inventions (like the “Skintendo Joysuit” full-body gaming wearable), the trio is forced to up its game when a criminal mastermind (Neal McDonough) turns a star-studded fete hosted by an Internet billionaire (Utkarsh Ambudkar) into a hostage-taking event.

While countless pop culture references abound — including “Die Hard,” “Home Alone,” “La La Land” and an immortal line the late Bill Paxton delivered in “Aliens” that gives the film its title — and the guys occasionally over-reach for irreverence, director and fellow “Workaholics” veteran Kyle Newacheck mainly succeeds in delivering the most defiantly outrageous farce since “Borat.”

Try as one might to rise above the juvenility of it all, it’s ultimately hard to be mad at something that manages to cram Mark Cuban, a fearlessly full-frontal Devine, ironing board zip-lining and musician Shaggy forced at gunpoint to sing “It Wasn’t Me” into the same production.

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‘Game Over, Man!’

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Playing: Streaming on Netflix

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