By Max Evry
Since truly great video game adaptations have been few and far between, we’re taking the task of anointing the best of them a bit literally, and have included several films that revolve around video games. Consider that a cheat code. Game on!
Top 10 Video Game Based Movies
- 10
"Mortal Kombat" (1995)
Earth realm's fate will be decided the only way possible: through guys with superpowers beating each other up in a big ol' castle. Unlike a lot of other video game adaptations of the time, this one doesn't just trot out "best ofs" from the game for the sake of it but actually integrates them in a way that feels natural (Scorpion has his hook appear, Subzero freezes a guy). Brit dork director Paul W. S. Anderson has made his name in recent years as the caretaker to "Resident Evil" and its many lame sequels, but in this, his first big Hollywood movie, he actually turned out something pretty decent. - 9
"Tekken: Blood Vengeance" (2011)
Another fighting game, not unlike "Mortal Kombat," got its day in the sun, only this time in 3-frickin'-D! Taking place between the events of Namco's "Tekken 5" and "Tekken 6," this CG animated feature proves that the Japanese aren't afraid to keep continuity for the sake of the fans that have been following their properties for years, as opposed to making it as broad as humanly possible for generic audiences. Also there's a flying panda in it. Yeah. - 8
"Cloak & Dagger" (1984)
Fresh off of the worldwide smash that was "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," Henry Thomas took a lead role in this amazing spy fantasy that blends Hitchcockian intrigue with, well, kids. "Cloak & Dagger" is an espionage game that Thomas plays obsessively, to the point where the game's hero Jack Flack (Dabney Coleman) has become his imaginary friend. When the kid stumbles across an Atari cartridge that has military secrets on it (naturally), he's suddenly getting chased down left and right by murderous spies. A guilty pleasure, for sure, but one filled with genuine suspense and fun. - 7
"The Wizard" (1989)
Taken in now as an adult, this film is an oddball mix of a drama about an autistic boy and a non-stop commercial for Nintendo. Indeed, everything from a Power Glove to the final reveal of "Super Mario Bros. 3" reeks of product placement, but the story still feels oddly touching. Also, if you happened to be an 8-year-old boy in '89 then running away with a too-cute Jenny Lewis to win a $50,000-dollar video game tournament had to be #1 on your wish-list, right ahead of flying the Millennium Falcon. Dream on, kid… - 6
"Silent Hill" (2006)
Konami's long-running horror survival game got the big screen treatment with this rusty hypodermic of a movie that starts off unsettling before making a mad dash into surreal realms. Rose (Radha Mitchell) desperately searches for her adopted daughter Sharon (horror princess Jodelle Ferland) after a car accident leaves her stranded in this ghost town shrouded in fog and ash. She then encounters freaky faceless nurses, ritual sacrifices, and the disturbing villain known affectionately as Pyramid Head. The script by Roger Avery ("Pulp Fiction") is executed by Frenchie filmmaker Christophe Gans with just the right amount of subtle dread before going full-tilt boogie into weirdness. - 5
"Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic" (2010)
Okay, so technically this may or may not have been a 700-year-old book before it was a video game, but there weren't major boss battles in Dante Alighieri's epic 14th century poem/High School reading chore. Electronic Arts' video game, which repurposed the tormented Italian as a badass Crusader knight, proved so popular that it spawned this animated feature, which gives an Anime gloss (not to mention Anime sex and violence) to the tale. Each level of hell (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, etc) is given its own chapter with a distinct animation style, so while the transitions are jarring it is anything but boring. - 4
"Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" (2005)
This is the closest anyone's come to fulfilling the visual promise of what a tried-and-true video game movie should look like, and despite a pretty dense story, said visuals are nothing to sneeze at. In fact, they're pretty righteous, particularly in scenes where our hero Cloud has a sword fight with baddies while going 150mph on motorbikes, or an epic monster takedown that has to be seen to be believed. You pretty much had to have played the game to understand a lick of what's going on, but don't feel excluded: just pop on some Metallica and forget that there's supposed to be dialogue. - 3
"TRON" (1982)
Yes, what was three decades ago a major $20-million-dollar Disney blockbuster could now be made for $500 bucks on any Apple laptop, but that's beside the point. Director Steven Lisberger created a singular science fiction universe where video game programmer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) gets sucked inside his own creation and must fight through many dangerous (and awesome) challenges, from Deadly Discs to the iconic Light Cycle chase. The whole thing looks like a living, breathing blacklight poster, but it and its inferior sequel "Tron Legacy" are a re-enactment of pretty much every gamer's secret fantasy to cross over into a new world without having to keep popping quarters. - 2
"WarGames" (1983)
This cautionary tale was America's first real introduction to hackers, with Matthew Broderick being the cinematic ambassador to what has now become a time-honored cliché. Broderick's David Lightman uses his computer (which has less computing power than your average modern-day toothbrush) to change his girlfriend Ally Sheedy's grades, using a super-early dial-up modem. Since this was the era before GameStop, Lightman breaks into a US defense system and starts playing a game of "Global Thermonuclear War" that may be targeting actual Soviets. Whoops! - 1
"Wreck-It Ralph" (2012)
At last, someone finally cracked The Da Vinci Code and made a video game movie that works! Of course, the title character of Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) isn't an actual game character so much as he's the bastard son of Donkey Kong, with his "nemesis" Fix-It Felix Jr. a shorter cousin of Mario. Once Ralph escapes his early-'80s throwback of an arcade machine and encounters the intense world of today's ramped-up, ADD-afflicted graphics bombs he's quite the stranger in a strange land. As only an animated movie could, this hilarious tribute features loads of cameos (Pac Man, Q*bert, Zangief from "Street Fighter"), and essentially plays like "Toy Story" for video games… except it's better than "Toy Story." For real.