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Assorted Video Game Movies in Development

Obiwan Kenobi writes "Filmforce has a solid round-up of video game movies currently in development. From Alone In The Dark to Doom to Dead or Alive (yes, it includes an Extreme Beach Volleyball scene), some interesting reading on the current progress, or lack thereof, of current video game flicks."

24 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet!!! by alwsn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Spy-Hunter
    Status: In Development
    Cast: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson
    Director: None
    Writer: None


    Sweet! The Rock! He's good in anything!!!

    Hopefully this will be a bit more entertaining involving than the NES game... although I still hate those fat blue cars... knock me the road will you?

    1. Re:Sweet!!! by Obiwan+Kenobi · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sweet! The Rock! He's good in anything!!!

      Hmm...

      The Mummy Returns
      The Scorpion King

      How you said that without bursting out laughing is beyond me.

      I know I did...

    2. Re:Sweet!!! by macdaddy357 · · Score: 3, Funny

      We need more video game movies for the older crowd with a retro feel. I am ready for Pong: The Movie, and Space Invaders!

      --
      How ya like dat?
  2. A couple of games I thought of.... by Rooked_One · · Score: 4, Interesting
    I thought Half Life would have made an excellent movie.

    But put that idea to rest and just make a movie straight from Max Payne. That storyline was just incredible. Sure it would make the movie about 4 hours long, but man would it be great the first time you watched it.

    1. Re:A couple of games I thought of.... by DeadScreenSky · · Score: 5, Funny

      But put that idea to rest and just make a movie straight from Max Payne. That storyline was just incredible.

      ...

      I especially enjoyed the excellent writing!
      "Punchinello wanted Payne.
      He'd see the pain."

      "Sooner or later it was going to catch up with you.
      You'd find that Lady Luck was really a hooker, and you were fresh out of cash."

      "Outside, the mercury was falling fast. It was colder than the devil's heart, raining ice pitchforks as if the heavens were ready to fall."

      "In the belly of the plant, molten metal boiled and bubbled like a witch's brew."

      This next one is especially 'great' in context of the game:
      "There are only personal apocalypses. Nothing is a cliché when it's happening to you."

      Gamespy's review quip is a pretty good indicator:
      "A great down and dirty shooter that's horribly written and incredibly short."

      Seriously, I agree some of the dialogue was a little funny, but the game's story was horrendous. Just cliché after cliché, and just because the game knew it didn't make sitting through them any more bearable. I think it was reaching for some of the ridiculous operatic heights John Woo films reach sometimes, but it just really failed at that and sounded stupid and predictable instead.

      All IMHO, of course. :P

      --
      There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
    2. Re:A couple of games I thought of.... by frankthechicken · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, it would have made a great movie, but only because it has zombies in it, I mean it's not like a movie was going to be based on any other plot line the game had. Which is my problem with setting games on movies, its just a background to have actors run around in, not even a landscape.

      I can only really think of Final Fantasy where you could even vaguely base a movie on its plot, and even then it will be a pretty damn thin plotline. Game based movies have to be of the action variety at the moment, there is no character development, no intrigue, no qualities to make a decent script from. Games are only approaching the levels of cheap, cliched comic book story telling, and until they reach Watchman status, the only thing I want to see in game based movies are explosions, zombies and hot chicks.

      So I guess I'm getting what I want.

    3. Re:A couple of games I thought of.... by DeadScreenSky · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I agree that it was probably trying to celebrate and parody the genre, but I really don't think it pulled it off, for a few reasons:

      A. It was parodying the wrong genre. The game was obviously a 'John Woo rip-off'. But hell, most of John Woo's stuff is already parody. Witness how much even a lesser Woo film like Mission Impossible 2 is parody. It mocks Tom Cruise (the hero) the whole time - it cinematically undermines him throughout the film. It is constantly deconstruction the masculinity of the protagonist. But Max Payne's stupid writing was a parody of Western hard-boiled detective noir, which is a very different genre. It didn't fit together cohesively, IMO.

      B. The writing was inconsistent. Some of the lines were extremely over-the-top in their poor writing ("ice pitchforks") - by themselves they are parody. But a lot of the lines (I am thinking of that "lit up like a Christmas tree" one for example) just sound like bad writing. Then you have other lines which I seriously think were intended to sound cool ("personal apocalypses," which actually is a cool line, just not in a game like this). The mixture of ridiculously bad writing, just plain bad writing, and attempts to be cool still makes me question sometimes how much of the 'parody' was intentional.

      C. None of the rest of the game supports the parody. Maybe some of the areas referencing other games/movies, but those were usually secret. The rest of the game is ridiculously serious, from the photorealistic textures to the actual plot (graphic murder of wife). It doesn't even seem to me like they are trying to make humor out of the dichotomy - it just feels like two different games.

      D. It was just annoying; it pushed things too far. A little of that humor can be funny, but the game practically assaults you with it. It has one joke ("man, this writing is ridiculous!"), and it tells it again and AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND... Being stuck with an idiot can work in a film, for example (something like Zoolander, maybe). But for a ten or so hour game?

      Of course humor is highly subjective. I just know Max Payne drove me, as well as the people in my vicinity unfortunate enough to have to listen to me going through it, absolutely nuts.

      --
      There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
  3. Ooh, perhaps it's time for... by Stonehand · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Lopez and Affleck to remake "Mortal Kombat".

    --
    Only the dead have seen the end of war.
  4. I can't think of one good video game inspired movi by heldlikesound · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Mario Bros. - The Movie- Sucked
    Street Fighter The Movie - Sucked
    Pokemon Movies- Mostly suck, but one of the movies is a Monoke rip-off, which makes it cool...

    I will say that The Wizard was cool, but it was not so much a movie based on a video game as it was a movie about kids growing up in an age when video games were starting to be taken seriosly as an entertainment medium. I'd like to see more movies about gamer culture and less bad Van Dam as Guile pieces of crap...

    --


    Cloud City Digital: DVD Production at its cheapest/finest
  5. What about Tomb Raider? by TaraByte · · Score: 4, Funny

    The plot totally sucked, but Angelina Jolie sure was hot.

    --
    Security is inversely proportional to the commitment of one desiring to circumvent it.
  6. Hmm by B3ryllium · · Score: 4, Funny

    Duke Nukem Forever: The Movie (Due out before the game. Besides, infinity plus infinity is still infinity, right?)

  7. Nice, but women rock... by Justen · · Score: 4, Informative

    Simply because the Tomb Raider franchise was so successful in theatres doesn't mean that the film and game industries should start making babies.

    There are many, many things specific to Tomb Raider that helped build its success as a movie. Primarily, there is a popular need for additional female-driven action movies.

    Jinx, played by Halle Berry, from the James Bond series is a good example of things to come. She's also looking at Catwoman. Ashley Judd in upcoming The Blackout Murders and, of course, there's always Charlie's Angels.

    Anyway, it isn't affirmative action for the sake of affirmative action... It's a need...

    Good luck to these movies, though.

    justen

  8. Video Games Movie list by newsdee · · Score: 5, Informative

    I knew my list of video games movies (live action, no animation) would be useful one day.

    If you see anything missing please reply so I can add it :-)

    "DIRECT CONVERSIONS":

    Super Mario Bros.
    Street Fighter
    Mortal Kombat
    Mortal Kombat Annihilation
    Dungeons & Dragons (ok, it's a table RPG, but still...)
    Wing Commander
    Resident Evil
    Tomb Raider
    Final Fantasy
    Double Dragon
    Clue (table game, see D&D)
    Last Bronx

    (MISTAKENLY THOUGHT AS CONVERSIONS)
    Parasite Eve (not really, book and movie released first)

    "INSPIRED FROM VIDEOGAMES":

    The 13th Floor
    Avalon
    Cloak and Dagger
    eXistenZ
    Joysticks
    The Last Starfighter
    Matrix
    Mazes and Monsters
    Nightmares - Bishop of Battle sequence
    Strange Days
    Tron
    War Games
    The Wizard
    (Code Hunter?)

  9. So what's the difference? by NetDanzr · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Spy Hunter. Max Payne. Hitman. Grand Theft Auto. The Getaway. Driver.

    I see no difference between these games and gangster movies since the silend black-and-white movie. Hell, I could name movies with Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris or Clint Eastwood that would fit any of these games. All the producers have to do is to re-release these old movies, slap a new name on them and they are done.

    Did anybody consider that games are influenced by movies, and thus making a movie based on a game that was inspired by a movie is a little redundant?

  10. Now this is funny by Wordsmith · · Score: 3, Funny

    Duke Nukem: The Movie
    Status: Missing-In-Action
    Cast: None
    Director: None
    Writer: None
    The Scoop: This long-rumored project is well past its prime.

  11. Re:Quick... by SnuSnu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, and Ms Pac-Man was made into a porno. After all, she does go around gobbling up loads of balls.

  12. Re:game of the year by mao+che+minh · · Score: 3, Funny
    I hope that the actors in any film inspired by the Unreal Tournament series of video games would accurately portray it's players and their odd, unique language, such as:

    "LOL fkcu U awp fag"

    or

    "OMFG camping fag!"

    "ff on?"

    and the line that I heard during a session of UT2003 just last night:

    "j00 fucking wALL hakc lamer!"

    The "Unreal Experience" immerses you in an amazing epoch of stunning dialect and culture that any movie rendition has to stay loyal to if it wishes to be successful.

  13. Monkey Island The Movie by CausticWindow · · Score: 4, Funny

    Starring John Cusack as budding pirate Guybrush Threepwood,
    With Cameron Diaz as Elaine,
    Jack Nicholson as Le Chuck The Evil Pirate,
    Chevy Chase as Stan,
    Vincent Gallo as Herman Toothroot,
    and Leonardo DiCaprio as the monkey.

    --
    How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
  14. Dirty Dance Dance Revolution by chill182 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dirty Dance Dance Revolution

    A rich girl on vacation with her family finds herself in an arcade subjected to a new form of "dancing" that regular people don't understand. She falls in love with a guy that got good by playing the game on pads in his parents basement. She gets in a big fight with her family when they realize she is a geek.

    "4 stars." - Kenton Times
    "A coming of age film that is fun for the whole family" - Findlay Courier
    "This is the best movie based on the video game Dance Dance Revolution we have seen this year" - Columbus Dispatch

  15. Milla Jovovich in Alice... by El+Camino+SS · · Score: 4, Funny

    A screenwriting team has been hired and Milla Jovovich has been talking herself up for the lead.

    Milla Jovovich as a hot Alice? In the stockings and the little black shoes? Maybe a tight little Bettie Page haircut?

    I pretty much see that as being as the best f'n idea I have heard all year. Whoever is behind that idea deserves an Oscar almost as much as the guy that was responsible for putting the pool scene in Wild Things.

  16. Dude, it's been done... by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 3, Informative

    Haven't you ever seen Robot Jox. Yeah, yeah, it's not the Mech Warrior universe, but it's a bunch of big robots fighting each other. It also has my vote for one of the worst movies ever made. When I thought about it, I started laughing to myself imagining my brother constantly repeating one of the worst delivered lines of all time:

    We're Robot Jox! .... We're already dead!

    Please, see this movie if you haven't already. It's so bad, it's fun.

    --
    Forget the whales - save the babies.
  17. Tetris, the movie by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...starring Ben Affleck as that long thin piece that never shows up when you need it! Studio insiders report that this is a particularly challenging role for Affleck and he is preparing by taking falling and rotating lessons.

    I heard Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks are working on a version of MineSweeper. Although they're having trouble signing Drew Barrymore. She thinks the mines are too violent and refuses to be part of the project unless Spielberg replaces them with Walkie-Talkies.

    Coming soon... John Travolta in Space Invaders! Pixar is using a rendering farm to realistically display the motions of each of the sixty alien ships as they approach the Earth and ravage its barricades with a murderous barrage of short vertical lines.

  18. Re:I can't think of one good video game inspired m by Dylan+Zimmerman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Have you seen Gollum lately?

    I am a CG modeler. It's unbelievably simple to convince people that they're watching a human if they don't see the face. Our brains have portions dedicated to identifying faces. We can recognize that something is wrong with one in a split-second.

    Gollum was the single best CG character that I have ever seen. They did motion capture for his face, so even it moved correctly. The oly real problem that I saw was during one scene, the cloth he was grabbing didn't behave correctly. That's probably because Andy Serkis' fingers aren't as long as Gollum's.

    Stills from Final Fantasy were very good, but the video was less than perfect. Gollum's motion was wonderfuly fluid. He moved like a real creature instead of as some construct. I was mostly amazed by how good his facial expressions were. Those are very hard to do manually.

  19. Re:I can't think of one good video game inspired m by extra88 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I enjoyed Mortal Kombat but that may have been partially due to a "contact high" of enthusiasm from the 13yr. old boys sitting two rows in front of me.