{"id":16005,"date":"2015-07-27T00:30:53","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T04:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=16005"},"modified":"2015-07-27T00:56:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-27T04:56:41","slug":"five-great-video-game-movies-you-can-watch-instead-of-pixels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/27\/five-great-video-game-movies-you-can-watch-instead-of-pixels\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Great Video Game Movies You Can Watch Instead of \u201cPixels\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"homepage-bg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We loved the original short film \u201cPixels<\/a><\/strong>\u201d when we first saw it and were not surprised that its adaptation from Happy Madison is being pulverized by movie critics<\/a><\/strong>. It\u2019s been torn to shreds by gamers, critics and Sandler fans across the board, not surprisingly, and while we haven\u2019t seen it, we thought we\u2019d share with you five movies you could watch instead of \u201cPixels.\u201d If you don\u2019t want to see another Adam Sandler cash grab, feel free to buy\/rent any one of these five video game centered movies that pay tribute to video games while entrenching audiences in their universe.<\/p>\n

Or go watch the Sandler movie. Who cares? I\u2019m not your father.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)<\/strong>
\nThis is the movie that channels the love for video games within a coming of age romance and collide the worlds to form a slick amalgam. Scott is a young Canadian man who has fallen in love with a young American girl named Ramona Flowers. She agrees to go out with him but only if he can defeat her seven evil exes. There are endless references to video games here from Street Fighter, Double Dragon, Rampage, and the Legend of Zelda, right down to Super Mario Bros. Scott is the member of a group named Sex Bob-omb, every match with an evil ex ends with them exploding in to a shower of coins. Intentionally off the wall and disconnected from reality, Edgar Wright\u2019s adaptation of the graphic novels is brilliant.<\/p>\n

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)<\/strong>
\nMuch like Toy Story, this animated Disney feature talks about what video games do when we\u2019re not looking. Most importantly: video game characters. \u201cWreck It Ralph\u201d builds a large and interesting universe where classic and modern video game characters commute back and forth in an arcade and learn to function with their dynamics as heroes and villains. There\u2019s even group therapy where some video games\u2019 most famous villains gather to discuss their roles as villains and how misunderstood they tend to be. There are cameos from many characters from various famous video game companies including Q Bert, Street Fighter, zombies from Resident Evil and House of the Dead, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pacman, Frogger, and the list goes on.<\/p>\n

Video Games: The Movie (2014)<\/strong>
\nSomething apparently the writers of \u201cPixels\u201d would have benefited from watching, \u201cVideo Games the Movie\u201d is not entirely filled with new information, but it does explore the rise and fall of the video industry, the big boom of the nineties, and of course the creation of some of the greatest video game characters and consoles of all time including Super Mario, Sonic, and the Super Nintendo. There\u2019s also talk about the war between Sega and Nintendo, and how the world was influenced by video games as a whole. It\u2019s a fun and very breezy documentary about a fascinating industry.<\/p>\n

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)<\/strong>
\nAnother wonderful video game documentary, \u201cKing of Kong\u201d is the battle between every man Steve Wiebe and champion Billy Mitchell, both of whom are experts at Donkey Kong. Wiebe seemingly breaks the world record and sends it to the Twin Galaxies arcade where the record is then challenged by Mitchell, who insists he holds the record. What ensues is a large controversy, as director Seth Gordon chronicles a battle of wills and skills between two vastly different men. \u201cKing of Kong\u201d explores an rarely featured world of classic video gamers where arcades are taken very seriously, and can define one\u2019s own reputation among their circle of comrades and friends. It\u2019s shockingly compelling, infuriating, and filled an array of charming people that make video games a lifestyle. There\u2019s long been talk of turning \u201cKing of Kong\u201d in to a feature length movie. Hopefully not by Happy Madison.<\/p>\n

The Wizard (1989)<\/strong>
\nSure it’s a glorified ad for Nintendo, but who cares? It’s one of the most entertaining kids films of the eighties. Starring Fred Savage and Jenny Lewis, the premise involves young Jimmy whose older brother (played by Savage) breaks him out of institution. Dead set on going to California, young Jimmy displays a shocking skill for Nintendo games, even bringing down another player who has an affinity for arcades. To win some prize money for the trio of kids, Jimmy is entered in to a game tournament, where he plays one of the most popular games of all time: “Super Mario Bros. 3.” Filled with Nintendo paraphernalia, and looks at some of their most iconic games, “The Wizard” works as a warp back to the eighties when Nintendo dominated the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We loved the original short film \u201cPixels\u201d when we first saw it and were not surprised that its adaptation from Happy Madison is being pulverized by movie critics. It\u2019s been torn to shreds by gamers, critics and Sandler fans across the board, not surprisingly, and while we haven\u2019t seen it, we thought we\u2019d share with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[58,64,219,292,1156],"class_list":["post-16005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-list-junkies","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-comedy","tag-documentary","tag-video-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16005"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16017,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16005\/revisions\/16017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}