Static Media Like it or not, "A Minecraft Movie" is absolutely crushing it at the worldwide box office, so like nightfall in the Overworld, you can bet these movies are gonna keep coming until the servers crash. Advertisement We could talk about the many, many flaws "A Minecraft Movie" practically flaunts throughout its somehow-arduous 90-minute runtime (and, indeed, we've already published a full review here), but there's clearly an audience for this sort of broad, colorful family adventure film based on a massively popular piece of intellectual property. Who knew? A lot of movie studios, actually, all of whom have been producing movies like "A Minecraft Movie" for the past several years with mixed results. We picked a few of our favorites, added in some older picks for good measure, and crafted this list of the 10 best movies like "A Minecraft Movie." Whether you liked it for its ensemble of misfits, its fantastical world, or simply because Jack Black gets sucked into a video game, you can mine for your next watch with this line-up of movies like "A Minecraft Movie." Advertisement
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Paramount Pictures If you want another mid-2020s adventure film that mixes elements of fantasy with contemporary action and comedy, you should definitely roll the dice on "Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves." Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the 2023 movie manages to appeal to both die-hard fans of the culturally dominant tabletop roleplaying game as well as those who don't know their D20s from their D6s, largely by harnessing the real, relatable chaos of an actual D&D game and channeling it through a story that resembles the best of Marvel Studios' crowd-pleasing adventures. Advertisement Anyone who's played even one game of D&D will be charmed by how accurately it nails the game's bewildering mechanics while capturing the spirit of collaborative, improvisational storytelling that serves as the game's beating heart, which could have something to do with the fact that the directors and the cast themselves actually played D&D as part of their creative process. Speaking of the cast, it includes so many underrated performers getting to do what they do best, from Chris Pine's dashing scoundrel of a bard and Michelle Rodriguez's brutal barbarian to Regé-Jean Page's pompous paladin. You don't even need to be a player to fall in love with the entire ensemble cast (there are also a few surprise cameos from actors who nearly threaten to steal the entire movie, but we won't spoil them here). Advertisement Despite clearly being set up to launch a series or perhaps even a whole franchise of "Dungeons and Dragons" related films and television shows, "Honor Among Thieves" was a critical failure at the box office (though the second life it found on Netflix may help keep the dice rolling). For now, it's a wildly entertaining film that will surely entertain fans of "A Minecraft Movie."
Free Guy
20th Century Studios For better and for worse, "A Minecraft Movie" is a film made to capture the interest of an extremely online audience, one as fluent, or even more so, in the world of YouTubers and Twitch streamers as they are in the world of video games. If this sort of energy appeals to you, "Free Guy" is right up your alley. Advertisement Released in 2021 as cinemas were testing the waters amidst the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the film was the first collaboration between producer-slash-director Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds. The sense of humor, pacing, and visual style you'll find in their subsequent work — the serviceable Netflix sci-fi family flick "The Adam Project" and the billion dollar behemoth Marvel Studios sequel "Deadpool and Wolverine" — is rooted in this breathless story about a video game character who attempts to save his virtual world after becoming self-aware. It's a strange mix of "The Truman Show" and "Barbie" (its similarities to the latter being so prominent that a sequel was put on hold), told with the narrative language of a Marvel movie and set in a world that clearly takes its cues from the likes of "Grand Theft Auto V." Advertisement At its worst, it's an indulgent, loud, CGI-heavy mess that doesn't have a coherent grasp of its own themes. But unlike "A Minecraft Movie," "Free Guy" does have the spectacle, charisma, star power, and aggressive optimism to be a genuinely entertaining dumb-but-fun blockbuster.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Sony Pictures Releasing Some of you reading this are probably shaking your heads thinking, "But /Film, it's a ridiculous movie where Jack Black gets sucked into an unrealistically lush world that somehow also operates on retro video game logic. How could any film compete with that?" Don't worry, we've got you covered. Advertisement If you were one of the few people that didn't contribute to the nearly $1 billion box office haul of 2017's "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle," it's time to log off and plug in to one of the best legacy sequels ever made. Following the original 1995 Robin Williams film about a magical board game that brings the dangers of the jungle to the real world, "Welcome to the Jungle" reinvents this premise for the age of gamers by uploading "Jumanji" to the digital world. The film follows four teenagers (one of whom is played by "Hereditary" star Alex Wolff) who get sucked into the game of "Jumanji," now essentially an NES RPG with inventories, stats, and health bars. In this magical virtual world, they find themselves embodying avatars of fictional characters played by Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black. Advertisement Black's performance in "Welcome to the Jungle" is light-years ahead of anything he does in "A Minecraft Movie," not least of all because he's giving a Kirk Lazarus-esque performance as "a dude playing another dude" (we won't spoil more than that here). The film overall is an absolute delight, and its sequel – which Black and his co-stars all returned for — is just as solid.
The Last Starfighter
Universal Pictures Maybe the retro aesthetics of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and "A Minecraft Movie" aren't enough for you, and maybe you need something a little more nostalgic to hit the spot. In that case, we should jet on back to the actual 1980s for the science fiction epic "The Last Starfighter." Advertisement Directed by Nick Castle (director of "Dennis the Menace," writer of "Hook" and "Escape from New York," and the first actor to portray Michael Myers in the "Halloween" series), the 1984 feature follows a down-on-his-luck teenager (fellow "Halloween" franchise alum Lance Guest) who discovers that he has a unique, unparalleled talent for a fictional arcade game called "Starfighter." He isn't the only one to recognize his gifts, however, as he earns a visit from the game's inventor, an alien who designed "Starfighter" as a means of testing, recruiting, and training real pilots to fight in an actual intergalactic war taking place in the far reaches of outer space. This film is the furthest from "A Minecraft Movie," but it's included on this list in terms of target audience, tone, genre, and style. Honestly, it's arguably all the more worth mentioning because of this, as it successfully taps into the escapist fantasy "Minecraft" only vaguely approximates with its shoddy character writing, one where a true social outcast dreaming of more is given the chance to save the world. "The Last Starfighter" remains a classic for this reason, and it has aged so well in terms of its themes and concepts that sequel rumors persist to this day. Advertisement
The LEGO Movie
Warner Bros. Pictures With its slapdash sense of humor, universal story, creative themes, and distinctly kid-friendly style, it was always obvious that, if there was one film "A Minecraft Movie" was trying to emulate most, it's "The LEGO Movie." Indeed, both films were built on premises that were, to put it bluntly, blatant cash-grabs. But what "The LEGO Movie" was able to create from these elements is far greater than anything "A Minecraft Movie" achieves. Advertisement Yes, "The LEGO Movie" has block-based environments, building mechanics that allow the heroes to be limited only by their imaginations, and scores of pointedly generic bad guys that more-or-less work in service of a basic hero's journey. However, these pieces ultimately build toward an unexpectedly insightful subversion of this archetypal story arc, parodying such tropes as "chosen one" prophecies, good guys and bad guys, and all-powerful MacGuffins. Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the writer-directors who were best known at the time for "21 Jump Street" and have since been responsible for Sony's wildly successful "Spider-Verse" films) took the space they were given to imbue the film with a personality and sense of humor that far outshines those of most films made for kids, and they were further buoyed by a talented voice cast that includes Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Ferrell, Will Arnett, Alison Brie, Charlie Day, and Morgan Freeman. Advertisement Smart, surprising, and stupidly fun, "The LEGO Movie" is the corporation-approved adventure comedy that's actually worth your time. If you've already seen it and have yet to see its fairly decent sequel or its bafflingly triumphant "Batman" spin-off, do yourself a favor and make family movie night a "LEGO Movie" night.
Ready Player One
Warner Bros. Pictures We aren't too proud to admit that some movies — including a few moments of "A Minecraft Movie" — are fun because they bring back that childhood joy of dumping out all of your action figures and smashing them together in some epic battle only you could imagine. If you want all that youthful, indulgent chaos from a film with just a bit more on its mind thematically, we'd recommend "Ready Player One." Advertisement Chances are, the somewhat infamous reputation of "Ready Player One" has already reached you, whether or not you've seen the film for yourself. For some, the 2018 book-to-screen adaptation of Ernest Cline's nerd-centric tome is remembered as a lightweight but fun adventure with nostalgia to spare. For others, it's an alienating and jargonistic nightmare that also happens to be Steven Spielberg's worst movie. But the best way to enjoy "Ready Player One" is to embrace the gaudy mess of it all, to sit back and appreciate the stupid splendor of so much shameless pop culture iconography being mushed together in a way that shouldn't work. Does seeing the pacifist Iron Giant fighting in a massive video game avatar war make any sense? Nope. Does it betray the original work's intention? Absolutely. Yet perhaps because of how unrelenting and overt the movie's almost cynical obsession with nostalgia is, his cameo has more of an impact than most of the characters featured in "A Minecraft Movie." (And if you've already seen and enjoyed "Ready Player One," you should check out the best movies that nail this brazenly geeky tone.) Advertisement
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
Dimension Films This list is already full of great options for the whole family, but many of them came out so recently it's likely they're at the very least already on your radar. If you're looking for a bit of a throwback that has a strangely similar vibe to "A Minecraft Movie," look no further than "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over." Despite being the third film in Robert Rodriguez's original "Spy Kids" trilogy, "Spy Kids 3-D" effectively acts as a standalone story that abandons the setting and original premise of the first two films. Advertisement After leaving the secret agency and becoming a private detective, teen crime fighter Juni Cortez (Daryl Sabara) is hired to investigate a virtual reality video game invented by a megalomaniac (Sylvester Stallone) for seemingly nefarious purposes. Though its visual effects definitely show the film's age, "Spy Kids 3-D" is packed to the brim with Rodriguez's wonderfully weird imagination and aesthetic. The film is uniquely structured like a video game, which gives him room to dramatically change environments and obstacles level-to-level. One scene might be a "Mad Max"https://www.slashfilm.com/"Speed Racer" death race in a futuristic city, and the next might be a "Real Steel" robot boxing match on the moon. Of course, we also have to mention the cast, an ensemble of actors that — and we're not exaggerating — arguably rivals the star power of "Avengers: Endgame" in terms of 2000s movie stars (plus Glen Powell and Selena Gomez, both of whom make their feature film debut). It isn't as engaging for adults as "The LEGO Movie" (or, for that matter, other family films we'll talk about further down), but it's a perfectly enjoyable option for family movie night nonetheless. Advertisement
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Universal Pictures Even if it often looks and feels like a Super Bowl ad for the PlayStation 4, we'll give credit where it's due and admit that "A Minecraft Movie" certainly looks like... well, a "Minecraft" movie. There's something undeniably satisfying about seeing a video game world translated to and ever-so-slightly upgraded for a cinematic presentation, though we'd argue that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" still has "Minecraft" beat in this regard. Advertisement Not to be confused with the awful but interesting live-action '90s disaster that the cast hated making, 2023's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is about as faithful as a video game adaptation can be, visually speaking. Say what you will about the plot, Illumination absolutely perfected the aesthetic of the Mushroom Kingdom, making it feel like a somewhat tangible environment without sacrificing any of the color, fantasy, or cartoonish whimsy that makes Mario's world so super in the games. While its soundtrack is full of a dizzying amount of senselessly employed licensed Top 40s music, Brian Tyler's original score remarkably transforms the game's iconic music into sweepingly cinematic orchestrations. (It seriously might be one of the most memorable film scores of 2023 for this very reason.) Advertisement Sure, it isn't the most surprising film, and its attempts to find that "LEGO Movie" magic are similarly unsuccessful (despite miscasting Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the Mario Bros. themselves). But "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is still a guilty treat for video game fans, and if "A Minecraft Movie" didn't have enough singing Jack Black for you, this film has you covered as well.
TRON: Legacy
Walt Disney Studios If you're an older moviegoer looking for a film with similar themes that takes itself more seriously, "TRON: Legacy" is the video game epic for you. An appropriately titled legacy sequel to the 1982 film "TRON" starring Jeff Bridges, it tells a darker, more mature, but no less fantastical story about an outcast searching for answers in a virtual world. Decades after he invented the titular video game, Kevin Flynn (Bridges' character from "TRON") has vanished off the face of the Earth. His son Sam (Garrett Hedlund), disillusioned with his father's company and haunted by the mystery of his disappearance, is transported in the vast, dangerous, neon-drenched virtual world where he must fight for his survival against a tyrannical artificial intelligence. Advertisement Directed by future "Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski and written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz of "Once Upon a Time," "TRON: Legacy" is widely remembered as a grossly underrated sci-fi neo noir masterpiece, as well as one of the greatest legacy sequels of all time. The way it updates the original aesthetic of "TRON" creates an atmosphere that's dazzling, arresting, and genuinely unsettling at times, a mix of emotions that's also evoked by the film's iconic score, which was composed by French music duo Daft Punk. We were early champions of "TRON: Legacy" all the way back in 2010 and have continued to sing its praises into the 2020s. A sequel in the form of "TRON: Ares" has finally been filmed, and will be released in 2025. Advertisement
Wreck-It Ralph
Walt Disney Studios Finally, we have what might be the gold standard for family-friendly video game movies: Walt Disney Animation Studios' "Wreck-It Ralph." Though it isn't based on a real-world video game, the 2012 adventure film shows so much love for the gaming lore and culture that we hailed it as one of the best video game movies ever made when it was released. Advertisement If you missed it back then, "Wreck-It Ralph" imagines a hidden world within arcade machines where all your favorite video game worlds and characters are connected. More than a machine for generating nostalgia like "Ready Player One," however, the film uses everything it reminds you about these games to explore something new in its titular character: a Donkey Kong-esque video game villain (voiced by John C. Reilly) who's simply burnt out on being the bad guy. Though everyone around him — from "Street Fighter" baddie Zangief to Ralph's heroic but kind nemesis "Fix-It" Felix (Jack McBrayer) — tries to convince him that playing his role and staying in his lane is what matters most, he bravely leaves the confines of his universe to discover new virtual worlds (and a new side of himself too). Advertisement Like "The LEGO Movie," "Wreck-It Ralph" has surprisingly strong ideas about the roles we cast ourselves as in our heads, as well as how we learn to love ourselves, even when it seems like we aren't made to do anything good (its sequel expands on these ideas to a mostly-satisfying end). If "A Minecraft Movie" left you wanting more, "Wreck-It Ralph," or any of the movies we listed above, have plenty in store.
Интернет-клуб
