My fiance (he/they) and metamour (they) had just asked for a dab as i was watchin that part; so i ofc immediately told them the fun fact "GameGrumps was featured in the Tetris movie" My meta chimed in with "There's a Tetris movie?!?" and my fiance commented we shud def watch that soon; cuz we both special interest on tetris stuff :3
I certainly think Robert Stein's portrayal was more balanced, and appreciated that a lot! I think of him most through his own confessions of self-disappointment in the BBC Tetris documentary. He made a bad deal, and was a bit too focused on his own needs, but came out of it losing the most. I empathise with him a lot. I would be interested to hear more about his life to be honest, his searching for games across Europe has always been a really interesting part of the Tetris story. He is still to thank for the legacy.
Really great review! I liked the way you talked - as a story teller yourself - about the ways the film makers added some things and compressed the timeline to improve their story telling. Usually film critics are'nt film makers themselfs, but you are. And you're using this to great effect here! Well done!
As a person who's done a lot of similar work having to do research and making a good story, it's not something that's easy. They did a good job, a bit overboard as you said but when making a story to be seen by the masses, you have to condense many things and sometimes omit events in order to focus on what the story is supposed to be.
Great review, you didn't get hung up on small details or even large "hollywoodisms" and were grounded and realistic, with an overall positive tone that is the truth at the end, if this bring more interest in Tetris, even a little bit, that's a huge win for the community!
4:11 Okay, now I'll never be able to un-notice the orange letter box. That's hilarious. Arin: "Hey Dan, remember that time we were in a movie documentary about tetrominos?" Dan: "Arin, what the hell are you talking about?"
Great review. Love Gaming Historian's documentary and have watched it many times so needless to say it was so great seeing that story come to life, even if they did take some liberties with making the story to make it more dramatic. But loved the movie and your review. Keep up the great work! :)
Fun(?) Fact that the movie didn't touch on, two of the bidders for Tetris that Henk Rogers beat to the punch, including Maxwell, were active CIA assets at the time.
I think the transitions to 8 bit animation during the car chase helped to show that part is less authentic. I think they did that sequence well but I'm not surprised that part is not based on reality.
That the car chase never happened was obvious in my opinion, maybe not to somebody much younger than me. If I was 12 I might have thought the car chase was the reason they decided to make the movie, but for the most part, I think something as outlandish as that doesn't need a disclaimer; however, I had heard the story of Tetris was wild, and people were glad a movie was being made, so I did have to wonder about the parts immediately before and after it.
I enjoyed your review of the film. I admire your perspective because you've shown what it's like to do good storytelling through your videos that keep viewers engaged. I was more critical of the movie because I could not overlook some of the exaggerations such as the Russian embassy threatening Henk's Family. Also, I did not really feel a lot of tension in the business meeting scenes. But that was because I had read Dan Ackerman's book on the History of Tetris. The book went more into depth on the meetings. Which might be difficult to portray in the movie without it being boring.
2:35 thank you for that. i'm not into the tetris scene and stuff at all but the simple terms you use in your videos makes them fun to watch even for someone like me that doesnt even know how to play tetris properly
One of the 80's TV shows I spent my childhood watching was Dallas. That show involved the Ewings getting a lot of things sorted out in a place called Southfork Ranch while going back and forth as bitter rivalries. I find that a little similar to the Tetris movie because these people had so many things to sort out in order to get the Tetris rights of Russia's grasp and into its rightful owner.
great review! love how you review it based on what it was trying to do instead of what you thought it should do, which is a common pitfall in reviewers
You know, even with the small details and hollywoodisms, I still really enjoyed this movie. I think it captured the heart of the story behind tetris, and did a good job at doing that while not making too many compromises on truth.
10:30 - you misspoke saying that Stein comes across better than in the "internet historian" video - might wanna add a subtitle correction to "gaming historian"
3:33 The technological anachronisms threw me off a lot. Man, I wish they had cared about those details, it would have cost them a couple thousand and made the film so much better for tone and ambience accuracy. And yeah, maybe tone it down a little more at the end where it becomes a hollywood movie.
Would rather watch The Gaming Historian’s version. I’ve already watched it a handful of times and greatly enjoyed and will recommend it to others long before I suggest anything else.
Роджрес говорил в другом интервью, что действительно сотрудники посольства приходили. Якобы для проверки того что фирма в Японии действительно существует.
Oh god for a second I just had my 2 active braincells jump straight to the conclusion that it was gonna be some movie about the actual game like the mario movie or something, but it’s just about the production and popularisation of the game
I always thought the "incorrect version" thing was intentional. Like Henk just ported the IBM version straight to the Famicom as a prototype, just to demonstrate it to Hiroshi Yamauchi.
The first half was pretty fun, but I think they ended up going way overboard with the story, to the point I'm surprised Pajitnov and Rogers signed off on the script. At times it felt like one of those "Hollywood is so dumb, they turn everything into an action movie" parodies.
No, Nintendo executives didnt get into a car chase with the KGB across Moscow to eacape with the rights to Tetris while Holding out for a hero blared out in Russian on the radio. But sometimes a story that brings a smile is better than a lie that draws a tear.
I loved the movie, although I would have liked it if they had put a little easteregg or reference to Jonas Neubauer in the movie. He is one of the reasons there is still a public for this movie today and I think it's a shame he's not around to see it anymore.
It wasn’t a problem for the movie rating, rather more that just showing them getting drunk wouldn’t advance the story as well as showing their friendship build in other ways
Interesting info about the movie. I have seen the game historian documentary which was excellent. But that is actually upsetting if they made Stein hit Kevin Maxwell. When he actually never did that. That's even worse than portraying him as a scam artist. That is really harmful to mislead about somebody deceased. If they did that about my grandparent, I would not be laughing at all. In fact, just the opposite.
Technica details being wrong in historical movies is never tolerable. It is not that hard to do some light research and the approach of "the majority of people won't notice" is doing a disservice to the people who actually care about the given subject matter as clearly there are enough of then to warrant the movie being made in the first place. I understand why movies have to add fiction to real storries to make them more appealing but there is absolutely no reason to get technical details wrong as it does not impact the story
he actually addressed that when asked in an interview how real life henk compared to the movie henk. He said "real life henk wouldn't have had his jeans stolen" lol
I mean accurate to the TTC story sure, wasn’t really expecting any better but Vadim Gerasimov at the very least getting acknowledged would’ve been nice
I saw a trailer where the guy seems in awe seeing a game boy prototype. As a kid back then, the game boy was most certainly _not_ technically impressive. There were lots of simple kinda crappy b&w LCD portables and it seemed barely above that. Ultimately of course the game boy was great, but first impressions weren’t awe inspiring that’s for sure.
I wasn't expecting game grumps to be in a movie today but oh well
I'm actually curious if they know or commented on it. If anyone knows please tell
Jon Tron is back??
My fiance (he/they) and metamour (they) had just asked for a dab as i was watchin that part; so i ofc immediately told them the fun fact "GameGrumps was featured in the Tetris movie"
My meta chimed in with "There's a Tetris movie?!?" and my fiance commented we shud def watch that soon; cuz we both special interest on tetris stuff :3
@@SylviaRustyFae the hell is a metamour
@@canaconn2388 My fiance's other partner, who is not also my partner. We're polyamorous, which means we have an "open relationship" so to say.
I certainly think Robert Stein's portrayal was more balanced, and appreciated that a lot! I think of him most through his own confessions of self-disappointment in the BBC Tetris documentary. He made a bad deal, and was a bit too focused on his own needs, but came out of it losing the most. I empathise with him a lot. I would be interested to hear more about his life to be honest, his searching for games across Europe has always been a really interesting part of the Tetris story. He is still to thank for the legacy.
I love how Kevin Maxwell was just like “Sounds about right, but you’re giving my dad too much credit.”
Really great review! I liked the way you talked - as a story teller yourself - about the ways the film makers added some things and compressed the timeline to improve their story telling. Usually film critics are'nt film makers themselfs, but you are. And you're using this to great effect here! Well done!
2:45 as a non-tetris player you do a good job at this. You have made me interested in following the competitive tetris scene because of your vids 🎉
As a person who's done a lot of similar work having to do research and making a good story, it's not something that's easy. They did a good job, a bit overboard as you said but when making a story to be seen by the masses, you have to condense many things and sometimes omit events in order to focus on what the story is supposed to be.
"Those aren't level 28 colors, _Rob_ " 😂😂😂
Silly Rob forgot to get the right 28 colours
Great review, you didn't get hung up on small details or even large "hollywoodisms" and were grounded and realistic, with an overall positive tone that is the truth at the end, if this bring more interest in Tetris, even a little bit, that's a huge win for the community!
I really admire your work and have enjoyed learning about the classic tetris community through your accessible and compelling coverage
4:11 Okay, now I'll never be able to un-notice the orange letter box. That's hilarious.
Arin: "Hey Dan, remember that time we were in a movie documentary about tetrominos?"
Dan: "Arin, what the hell are you talking about?"
Great review. Love Gaming Historian's documentary and have watched it many times so needless to say it was so great seeing that story come to life, even if they did take some liberties with making the story to make it more dramatic. But loved the movie and your review. Keep up the great work! :)
Fun(?) Fact that the movie didn't touch on, two of the bidders for Tetris that Henk Rogers beat to the punch, including Maxwell, were active CIA assets at the time.
I think the transitions to 8 bit animation during the car chase helped to show that part is less authentic. I think they did that sequence well but I'm not surprised that part is not based on reality.
That the car chase never happened was obvious in my opinion, maybe not to somebody much younger than me. If I was 12 I might have thought the car chase was the reason they decided to make the movie, but for the most part, I think something as outlandish as that doesn't need a disclaimer; however, I had heard the story of Tetris was wild, and people were glad a movie was being made, so I did have to wonder about the parts immediately before and after it.
I enjoyed your review of the film.
I admire your perspective because you've shown what it's like to do good storytelling through your videos that keep viewers engaged.
I was more critical of the movie because I could not overlook some of the exaggerations such as the Russian embassy threatening Henk's Family.
Also, I did not really feel a lot of tension in the business meeting scenes.
But that was because I had read Dan Ackerman's book on the History of Tetris. The book went more into depth on the meetings. Which might be difficult to portray in the movie without it being boring.
2:35 thank you for that. i'm not into the tetris scene and stuff at all but the simple terms you use in your videos makes them fun to watch even for someone like me that doesnt even know how to play tetris properly
One of the 80's TV shows I spent my childhood watching was Dallas. That show involved the Ewings getting a lot of things sorted out in a place called Southfork Ranch while going back and forth as bitter rivalries. I find that a little similar to the Tetris movie because these people had so many things to sort out in order to get the Tetris rights of Russia's grasp and into its rightful owner.
great review! love how you review it based on what it was trying to do instead of what you thought it should do, which is a common pitfall in reviewers
You know, even with the small details and hollywoodisms, I still really enjoyed this movie. I think it captured the heart of the story behind tetris, and did a good job at doing that while not making too many compromises on truth.
Great input as always, Scout! I was pleasantly surprised by the movie.
How chill kevin maxwell was about his portrayal made me like him lol
10:30 - you misspoke saying that Stein comes across better than in the "internet historian" video - might wanna add a subtitle correction to "gaming historian"
Ah shoot, yeah I’ll correct it when I add subtitles. Thanks for the catch!
3:33 The technological anachronisms threw me off a lot. Man, I wish they had cared about those details, it would have cost them a couple thousand and made the film so much better for tone and ambience accuracy. And yeah, maybe tone it down a little more at the end where it becomes a hollywood movie.
Would rather watch The Gaming Historian’s version. I’ve already watched it a handful of times and greatly enjoyed and will recommend it to others long before I suggest anything else.
Every video on this channel is always top notch!
The car chase made me roll my eyes but overall it was great
still a fun watch but I highly recommend watching this along with the Gaming Historian documentary back to back
awesome stuff, this is my favorite tetris movie review so far
10:32 You said internet historian while talking about gaming historian
Роджрес говорил в другом интервью, что действительно сотрудники посольства приходили. Якобы для проверки того что фирма в Японии действительно существует.
Oh god for a second I just had my 2 active braincells jump straight to the conclusion that it was gonna be some movie about the actual game like the mario movie or something, but it’s just about the production and popularisation of the game
I always thought the "incorrect version" thing was intentional. Like Henk just ported the IBM version straight to the Famicom as a prototype, just to demonstrate it to Hiroshi Yamauchi.
I really loved this film! I thought it was great, and it got me playing more Tetris, so that's a plus.
3:20 expect they hired Matthew Marsh to play Gorbachev. Just why?
I'm pretty sure this channel is a better source for quality tetris content than any of the others you mentioned.
i had a hunch that the car-chase wasn't real
Bro is spitting out videos so fast
The first half was pretty fun, but I think they ended up going way overboard with the story, to the point I'm surprised Pajitnov and Rogers signed off on the script. At times it felt like one of those "Hollywood is so dumb, they turn everything into an action movie" parodies.
Broken record alert: aGameScout is phenomenal.
It spiked the price in Tengen Tetris also
Even with artistic license I wanted to yell at how he got Tetris working on the GB in like a minute.
Very nice review!
I watched it 5-7 times in a row within the week of release. It was genuinely entertaining.
No, Nintendo executives didnt get into a car chase with the KGB across Moscow to eacape with the rights to Tetris while Holding out for a hero blared out in Russian on the radio. But sometimes a story that brings a smile is better than a lie that draws a tear.
13:04 to people who know nothing about tetris? So... noone?)
I loved the movie, although I would have liked it if they had put a little easteregg or reference to Jonas Neubauer in the movie.
He is one of the reasons there is still a public for this movie today and I think it's a shame he's not around to see it anymore.
Journey before Destination
4:12 my favorite game
Excellent review.
0:15 wtf, is he your father?
YES
Was very waiting for this yup!
7:31 Wait, how is that not suitable? The movie was literally rated R
It wasn’t a problem for the movie rating, rather more that just showing them getting drunk wouldn’t advance the story as well as showing their friendship build in other ways
A nice movie about a story that was a little too focused on making Henk a superhero, but apart from that, it's enjoyable 🤔
Blue Scuti should be in the Tetris movie 2
you should do a review of nes tengen tetris
I liked the first movie. Can’t wait for Tetris 2 the rise of Jonas. And Tetris 3 revenge of the rollers.
I played Tetris in Emacs while watching this.
Interesting info about the movie. I have seen the game historian documentary which was excellent. But that is actually upsetting if they made Stein hit Kevin Maxwell. When he actually never did that. That's even worse than portraying him as a scam artist. That is really harmful to mislead about somebody deceased. If they did that about my grandparent, I would not be laughing at all. In fact, just the opposite.
9 min, never clicked so fast on a vid after release :D
Technica details being wrong in historical movies is never tolerable. It is not that hard to do some light research and the approach of "the majority of people won't notice" is doing a disservice to the people who actually care about the given subject matter as clearly there are enough of then to warrant the movie being made in the first place. I understand why movies have to add fiction to real storries to make them more appealing but there is absolutely no reason to get technical details wrong as it does not impact the story
Man, what a family the Maxwell's are.
What a Wikipedia binge-reading feast.
But did they steal his pants!?
he actually addressed that when asked in an interview how real life henk compared to the movie henk. He said "real life henk wouldn't have had his jeans stolen" lol
TUGI!
whoops I stumbled on aFilmScout's channel. He does look familiar though..
Perhaps you saw aSongScout's channel
Norm is the best. Caruso and Macdonald.
I mean accurate to the TTC story sure, wasn’t really expecting any better but Vadim Gerasimov at the very least getting acknowledged would’ve been nice
At this point it's more fun to watch Tetris than football
let's gooo
THE WHAT NOW?
Kevin Maxwell is like only the 3th worst person in his family.
yeah but he almost look "normal", a bit of a cretin but normal compared to his father and sister. Jesus.
literally 1984
What’s up?
The sky
tetris
you coulda said'spoilers' xd
hope i can find the movie on zamunda
I saw a trailer where the guy seems in awe seeing a game boy prototype. As a kid back then, the game boy was most certainly _not_ technically impressive. There were lots of simple kinda crappy b&w LCD portables and it seemed barely above that.
Ultimately of course the game boy was great, but first impressions weren’t awe inspiring that’s for sure.
the movie feels like it was written by AI
Meh. The script was done by script researchers.
54th comment
Second
Gaming Historian did it better!
i couldnt even finish this it was just too boring
I liked the subplot of why communism doesn’t work…take note Gen Z
just about all normal leftists hate the ussr? wtf is you on about
@@dihydrogen If you use proper grammar and leave out acronyms people may listen harder.
Third dislike!! :)
My review is that the movie is usa propaganda against russia