March 21, 2021: My Favorite Game Movies

I'm not talking direct adaptations only, most of which are SO NOT GOOD it's hard to rank them. Here are some of my favorite in-the-spirit-of-gaming movies:

Crank (2006): This movie is bananas and so fun – and is basically like watching a video game on film. Jason Statham rules – you should know this – and this film has boss battles, parkour, and the most insane ways to refill your stamina meter ever. Highly recommend, though NSFW and not for the faint of heart.

Goonies (1985): This is movie is a quest: it is peopled by the most loveable party of misfits each with their own special abilities, it has a dungeon (undersea cavern) crawl full of treasures, and there's a dang map with a musical clue! Hilarious and classic, ever enjoyable.

Jumanji (1995) & Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017): It's hard to top Robin Williams being hilarious Robin Williams – "Stop giving me things that fall apart!" in the board game version, but I have to say The Rock & company (Jack Black is aces in this movie! Hi, Alex Wolff not terrifying me!) in the "modernized" (is that an Atari??) version is my favorite of the two. Always watch it when it comes on; all performances are tops.

Clue (1985): Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, and Christopher Lloyd. Do you even laugh, bro?

The Raid (2011) & Dredd (2012): I always felt like Dredd was a VERY GOOD rip-off of the untoppable Indonesian film The Raid -- both of which feature a harrowing tower climb, each level increasing in difficulty. If you like glorious fight choreography, you already own and love The Raid, so I'm preaching to the choir here.

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse (2018): It's about a comic hero, it has the craziest animation of "flight", there's great enemies to overcome, and besides all that, it's one of my all-time favorite films overall for such a heartfelt script about fathers and sons and friendship and loss and everything that elicits feels. If this was a game (I'm not talking the skin on the Spiderman game from last year), I would play!

Also: Tron (1982), and less so Tron: Legacy (2010), The Last Starfighter (1984), Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018), Big (1988), and the speeder bike chase scene in Return of the Jedi (1983) through the forest of Endor.