Tag: Movie Review
Movie Review The Super Mario Bros. Movie - A Fun Ride That Substitutes Story For Spectacle
Somewhere over the Rainbow Road
The road to Illumination's The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been a long and winding one. Originally announced in 2018 before the reveal of the much-discussed voice cast in 2021, we have long been unsure as to whether Mario's big-screen debut (ahem, of the animated kind) was going to do the venerable gaming icon...
Movie Review Tetris - The Blocks Don't Quite Line Up In This Mostly Fun Thriller
Falling into place
When you’re playing a round of Tetris, the Game Boy title from 1989, nothing is more satisfying than when you line up four horizontal rows perfectly, the blocks disappear, and you get that slightly different jingle to tell you that yeah, you did it, good job. It’s addictive and engrossing, and nowadays there are many different...
Movie Review GoldenEra - A Celebratory Examination Of GoldenEye 007's Creation And Impact
Worth its weight in gold
"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." Ah, yes. The classic quote that may or may not have been uttered by Shigeru Miyamoto. With the gaming industry (understandably) experiencing an unusually high number of delays in recent years, the proclamation has been the subject of memes to the point...
Feature Uncovering The Unlikely Story Of The World's Worst Controller In The Power Of Glove
"It's so bad"
To a complete outsider, the notion of creating a documentary about a failed video game peripheral from 30 years ago might seem pointless, if not downright silly. But the Power Glove is so much more than a device which simply struggled to find its audience and meekly withdrew into the night; it has become an iconic piece of gaming...
Movie Review Pokémon Detective Pikachu Does Enough To Break The 'Bad Video Game Movie' Curse
Mewtwo or Magikarp standard?
Films based on video games have had a bit of a bad reputation, to say the least. Whether it's the wonderfully dated Mortal Kombat, or the infamously muddled and confused Super Mario Bros., the line 'it's good for a video game movie' is one we've heard all too often. Now that Pokémon Detective Pikachu has been unleashed...
Movie Review King Of Kong Meets Spinal Tap In Going For Golden Eye
"Rule no. 1: Absolutely no use of Oddjob"
Video games and movies often make uncomfortable bedfellows; just look at the Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993 and Jean-Claude Van Damme's equally risible Street Fighter flick. However, sometimes the combining of these two mediums can yield positive results; King of Kong is one notable example. Jim...
Movie Review Pixels Proves Once Again That Video Games And Film Do Not Make Good Bedfellows
Game Over, man
Fun Fact: Pixels was a short, two minute film released in 2010 that briefly depicted a world overrun by an array of characters from old school arcade games. Not So Fun Fact: This short film would go on to be adapted into a feature length film of the same name five years later, starring none other than Adam Sandler. If that doesn't...
Movie Review Behind Nintendo Quest's Game Collecting, There's A Surprisingly Human Story
For the love of the find
Kickstarter-funded movie Nintendo Quest isn't exactly a documentary about NES games. They're definitely in the film; don't worry about that. You'll see so many shelves and boxes and displays chock full of gray cartridges that they'll dance behind your eyelids whenever you close them. But those who expect huge reels of play...
It's good to be bad
The film and television industry is traditionally content to boss over video games: movie adaptations of popular gaming franchises are more often than not sub-par, while other projects reference games lazily without any real understanding of the medium. Outside of documentaries like Indie Game: The Movie and more careful efforts...
Movie Review Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
A true gentleman never disappoints his fans
Puzzle 001: How do you adapt a best-selling puzzle series for the big screen? The answer? Bring the puzzles along for the ride. For most movies, shoehorning in memorable gameplay elements hasn't always worked out as planned — the first-person shooting segment from Doom was lampooned by many viewers, and...
Phoenix's début on the big screen makes a good case
While the video game and movie industries have arguably managed to advance and make some great strides over the last few years, the same can't be said for their offspring. Whether it be the sexy archaeological adventures of Lara Croft, or the hard-hitting, guns-a-blazing ways of Agent 47, most...
Movie Review The Wizard (1989)
Forget all you've been told. This film kicks all kinds of ass
In a world where everyone seems to have an opinion and they’re all too happy to force it upon others, it’s worth remembering that when judging something (be it a book, film or videogame) it all depends on your connection with that particular piece of media. For example, watching a...