I'm more likely to turn my nose up to a drinking game than indulge in it. Most drinking games are at best an excuse to do something you were going to do anyway and at worst an ill-advised collection of bad ideas that will almost certainly result in porcelain worship. Really, the majority of drinking games are just logical conclusions of bad drinking behavior. Take beer pong, for instance. It's a game that takes the inherently vile experience of chugging cheap pilsner and makes it somehow more disgusting by adding a dirty table, a wet ping pong ball and the hands of drunk strangers. People ought not to drink cheap pilsner anyway, but beer pong just makes it worse. Movie drinking games are only marginally less stupid. Sure, taking a shot every time Character X says Catchphrase Y will get you drunk pretty fast, but this seems like a classic case of the whole diminishing the parts. This game both distracts from the movie by reducing it to the search for a single component of it, as well as distracting from the (potential) pleasures of drinking. If you want to do shots, then just do shots. The game seems both unnecessary and less fun than it ought to be. But there is one drinking game I'm willing to endorse: Shot Roulette.
So, the biggest problem with Shot Roulette is that it requires some extra equipment and a fairly extensive bar to do it right. Perhaps this is why I approve of the game. It's not some stupid, on-the-fly drinking game that college kids play because they don't know better, it's a drinking game for people who have the will and know-how to actually enjoy alcohol. Here's what you'll need:
- A roulette wheel
- 18 shot glasses
- A bar with at least 18 different kinds of spirit
- At least three participants
- 18 pieces of Scrap paper
On your 18 pieces of scrap paper, write two of the numbers on the roulette wheel of the same color. Assign each participant an equal number of glasses then set them loose on the bar. You can set extra rules, such as "red numbered glasses are for liqueur, black numbered glasses are for liquor", but that's up to your discretion as host. The aim here is to get a wide variety of different shots on the board. Play consists of going around the room in whatever order you choose, giving each player one spin per turn. Wherever the roulette ball lands, that's the numbered glass the player has to drink.
Naturally, as the game progresses it'll be more likely that the ball lands on the number of an empty glass. You could just let that count as a free pass, but you could just round the number up to the nearest full glass if you're feeling particularly thirsty or malicious. As for the 0 or 00, I recommend calling one or both a "spinners choice", allowing the player to pour a shot of his or her choosing from the bar.
Shot Roulette isn't a game you win or lose, it's just a way to bring some variety and adventure to a party. I'm a bigger fan of a good-natured version of Shot Roulette than the mean-spirited cruelty of concocting shots that are actively unpleasant (tequila topped with cinnamon, 151 with hot sauce, etc). If the point of the game is to get drunk, which let's face it is exactly what drinking games are for, then a proper rendition of Shot Roulette does the job with the added potential of discovering some new flavors.