Video game films have had a spotty history at best, but they have been consistently better as of late. I think the reason behind that being video games have become recognized as serious art form over the past decade or so; therefore video game subject matter is handled with a bit more reverence and sincerity than it was in the past.
These are my top 10 films that have video games (and gaming in general) as inspiration and/or themes. These aren't films based on existing video games (e.g., "Tomb Raider" or "Resident Evil"). That's a list for another time...
"Nightmares" ("Bishop of Battle" segment)
This was an early 80s horror anthology flick with four different segments of varying quality. The second segment is far and away the best. It is titled, "The Bishop of Battle," and it deals with an arcade whiz-kid's (Emilio Estevez) obsession with a video game that leads to deadly consequences.
For the early 80s this was pretty damn cool, the special effects were well done for the time, and it had a "Twilight Zone" worthy twist ending.
I'll always remember the Bishop's "attract mode" taunting dialogue: "Greetings, Earthling. I am the Bishop of Battle, master of all I survey. I have 13 progressively harder levels. Try me if you dare."
"Grandma's Boy"
This is great, raunchy comedy that centers on a 35-year-old video game tester (Allen Covert) who, due to a variety of wild circumstances, is forced to move in with his grandmother and her two roommates. What really makes this film sing are the fantastic supporting performances by Joel David Moore, Nick Swardson, Peter Dante, and Linda Cardellini. If you want to just lose yourself and laugh for 90 minutes, pop this flick in and give it a go.
"Gamer"
Set in a future-world where humans can control other humans in mass-scale, multi-player online gaming environments, a star player from a game called "Slayers" looks to regain his independence while taking down the game's mastermind.
The main reason this flick is on this list is because I thought it was going to be awful and it wasn't. It is surprisingly enjoyable. Great performances by Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall, and Kyra Sedgewick help it along.
"Tron"
Hacker/arcade owner Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is digitally broken down into a data stream by a villainous software pirate known as Master Control and reconstituted into the internal, 3-D graphical world of computers. It is there, in the ultimate blazingly colorful, geometrically intense landscapes of cyberspace, that Flynn joins forces with a security program named Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) to outmaneuver the Master Control Program that holds them captive in the equivalent of a gigantic, infinitely challenging computer game.
This is the granddaddy of all video game films. Its special effects are still cool, even by today's standards, and so is its synth soundtrack, but it is laboriously slow in places and has a crappy, tacked-on ending that just doesn't work. Still, it's worth watching for nostalgia's sake if nothing else.
"Tron: Legacy"
Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Bridges again), looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 20 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant Quorra (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous. Meanwhile, the malevolent program CLU, who dominates the digital world, plans to invade the real world and will stop at nothing to prevent their escape.
The sequel is bigger, better, and brighter than its older sibling for sure, but it has plot holes large enough to fly a Recognizer through. It does have Olivia Wilde, and that's always a damn good thing in my humble opinion. Also, the computerized, "young" version of Bridges as CLU just freaked me out.
"Indie Game: The Movie"
This is a moving documentary that follows the journeys of indie game developers as they create games and release those works, and themselves, to the world. This movie is just wonderful, empowering stuff that makes you want to go out create things and take on the universe with just a head full of computer code.
"WarGames"
A young computer whiz-kid (Matthew Broderick) accidentally connects to a top secret super-computer named "Joshua" which has complete control over the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It challenges him to a game between America and Russia, and he innocently starts the countdown to World War 3. Can he convince "Joshua" that all he wanted to play was a video game and not the real thing?
My thoughts on this classic film are best summed up by the final line uttered by the computer, Joshua, who ultimately recognizes the futility of nuclear war: "A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"
"King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters"
In the early 1980s, legendary Billy Mitchell set a Donkey Kong record that stood for almost 25 years. This documentary follows the assault on the record by Steve Wiebe, an earnest teacher from Washington who took up the game while unemployed. The top scores are monitored by a cadre of players and fans associated with Walter Day, an Iowan who runs Funspot, an annual tournament. Wiebe breaks Mitchell's record in public at Funspot, and Mitchell promptly mails a controversial video tape of himself setting a new record. So Wiebe travels to Florida hoping Mitchell will face him for the 2007 Guinness World Records. Will the mind-game-playing Mitchell engage; who will end up holding the record?
This is the "Rocky" of the video game world...with Mitchell cast in the Apollo Creed role and Wiebe cast in the Rocky Balboa role. 'Nuff said.
"Wreck- It-Ralph"
Wreck-It Ralph (John C. Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his game's perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix Jack McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes... so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan -- win a medal -- but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph's only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman), a young troublemaking "glitch" from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy.
This is just a fun movie from beginning to end that really embraces, and understands, video game history. I like to call it a beautifully written love-letter to all of video gaming. It also sports a stellar voice cast, but the show is stolen by Sarah Silverman as Vanellope. Who knew the acerbic Silverman could do adorably cute?
"eXistenZ"
Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the leading game designer in the world, is testing her new virtual reality game, "eXistenZ" with a focus group. As they begin, she is attacked by a fanatic assassin employing a bizarre organic gun. She flees with a young marketing trainee, Ted Pikul (Jude Law), who is suddenly assigned as her bodyguard. Unfortunately, her pod, an organic gaming device that contains the only copy of the "eXistenZ" game program, is damaged. To inspect it, she talks Ted into accepting a gameport in his own body so he can play the game with her. The events leading up to this, and the resulting game lead the pair on a strange adventure where reality and their actions are impossible to determine from either their own or the game's perspective.
This is far and away my favorite video game film of all time because it is just such a well-crafted, mind- bender from director David Cronenberg ("The Fly," "Scanners"). It also has some really stimulating ideas about gaming and virtual reality that are fun to discuss with friends and/or loved ones after watching the film. "eXistenZ" is a film I can watch at any time and still enjoy. In fact, I think I'll go watch it now...
