Every month, Dan and Maxie discuss a movie adaptation of a video game series and rate it based on both its quality as an adaptation and its quality as a stand-alone film.
This month's movie is the third Pokemon movie! The one with Entei in it, being a dad! This film, released at the tail end of the late 90s pokemon zeitgeist, is definitionally a three-star banger with it's excellent visuals and great concepts but questionable script. They even made Brock enjoyable! Still, a lot of this movie feels very first draft between it's pacing, it's redundant plot details, and Team Rocket's seemingly meaningless inclusion beyond a sense of marketing obligation. Next Month: Dead or Alive (2007) Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Blue Core Studio's Mega Man fan film. What can a bunch of aspiring amateur filmmakers with intimate knowledge of the Mega Man series make? Not an action film, that's for sure. Next Month: Pokémon 3: The Movie - Spell of the Unown Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie! The sword of Damocles that has been hanging over this podcast since the beginning. For Dan, this was wasted potential held back by needing to be an Illumination film. For Maxie, this was an infuriating display of corporate branding that expects you to clap when you see it. Did we need Chris Pratt that badly? Was it really necessary to waste Holding Out For A Hero on a training montage? Did Jack Black singing the word "peaches" over and over again really get radio play? Our Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 2/5 Film Next Month: Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Resident Evil: Extinction! In the time since the last movie, the entire world has become a desert wasteland to a bizarre and unparalleled degree! Milla Jovavich is going to have to be as cool and badass as possible in order to defeat Umbrella(?) and Paul W.S. Anderson is going to have to extract as much visual inspiration from his favorite movies without incorporating any of their meaning! What we're really asking though is: how has everyone managed to avoid dying of thirst? Next Month: Super Mario Brothers (2023) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
In July of 2023, just a few weeks before SAG-AFTRA asked podcasters to refrain from discussing struck work, we recorded an episode on the Tomb Raider movie. With the strike over and ending on good terms, we felt it appropriate to finally release this episode to the public. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a peak 2001 (pre-9/11) movie in which Angelina Jolie is an adventurer seeking to acquire ancient artifacts said to being the key to controlling the flow of time. Up against her are the Iluminatii and her rival, played by a pre-Bond Daniel Craig. Our rating: 3.5/5 movie 5/5 adaptation Next Month: Resident Evil: Extinction Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is The Angry Birds Movie! Dan went in sober, Maxie went in on an edible, and at the end of the day it kind of just turned out alright. Turns out the really big game with a cartoony aesthetic has a really big and dedicated animation department? Next Month: Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the film adaptation of the video game 007: Goldeneye! A throughly enjoyable romp! Extremely accurate, too! Though perhaps a little too influenced by the release of Austin Powers... Dan's Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 3/5 Film Maxie's Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 4/5 Film Next Month: Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Dragon Quest: Your Story, featuring RPG superfan Max! Has watching so many bad video game movies lowered our standards for what makes a good movie? Maybe! Did we enjoy it! Yes! Did Dan cry during the recording because he was so moved by the climax of the film? Absolutely! Our Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 5/5 Movie The best movie we've watched so far? Next Month: ??? Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Final Fatasy: The Spirits Within! What if a movie had the budget and mediocrity of Avatar but none of the profit? We've watched some stinkers for this podcast, but this one is easily the single worst film we've ever watched. It basically only has the Final Fantasy title for marketing reasons. Our rating: 1/5 film. This isn't an adaptation of anything Next Month: Dragon Quest: Your Story (2019) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the live-action Warcraft film! It's weird, it's messy, there's orc Moses, what more could you ask for? Next Month: Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva! This movie was surprisingly decent, but felt a little lacking in places, and with plenty of room to riff. Not enough puzzles for a movie based on puzzle games, and it's weird how they made a death game scenario where nobody dies. Next Episode: Warcraft (2016) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Pokemon: The First Movie! Local Mewtwo expert Emory guests to help us decipher who Mewtwo, as well as discuss the Mario movie trailer and the landscape of being a child in the year 1999. We forgot to rate this one. Next Month: Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie | Emory
After much delay, we bring you Hardcore Henry! DOOM (2005) was such a rough movie that we needed to find a good movie to watch, and we went with this one! In a bold and experimental approach to filmmaking, this movie is shot entirely in first person and meant to mimic an FPS. It works, but maybe it needs some more cooldown on its (extremely good) action. Our Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 4/5 Film Next Month: Pokemon: The First Movie (1999) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the 2005 Doom film! There are three important things you should know about this movie: 1) This movie is based on the then-most-recent game in the series, Doom 3 2) Actually this movie is based on a more shitty version of Alien 3) This is somehow the single worst film we've ever covered, so much so that we have to break our rules in order to get something palateable in our systems. Our rating: 0/0 Film 0/0 Adaptation Next Month: Hardcore Henry (2015) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the second film in the Paul W.S. Anderson Resident Evil film franchise, Resident Evil Apocalypse! Milla Jovavich is back to kick ass and this time some characters from the games are here too! Nemesis is the true hero of this movie. Dan's Rating: 3/5 Adaptation 2/5 Movie Maxie's Rating: 4/5 Adaptation 3/5 Movie Morgan's Rating: 2.5/5 Adaptation 2.5/5 Movie Next Month: DOOM (2005) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the 1986 Mario OVA! Years before the live-action film there was another Mario film. This one was an hour-long OVA that never reached western shores. Animated and true to the source material, it was certainly a holy grail of mario media. Fairly recently, the entire film was restored and put on the Internet Archive for the public to view. How does it compare? The answer may surprise you! Our Rating: 4/5 Adaptation 3/5 Film Next Month: Resident Evil: Apocalypse (guest-starring Morgan Cursegoat!) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie | Skye
This month's movie is the 2010 Prince of Persia film! This is our first Disney film for the podcast, and you can tell because Captain Jack Sparrow is in this one! Featuring a cast of middle eastern characters played by white actors and set in what is basically a fantasy setting with real-life names and locations, it's not that great, but at times is a pretty decent adventure movie. Our Rating: 2/5 Next Month: Super Mario Bros. - The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Dōbutsu no Mori! The Animal Crossing movie! We sit back, relax and vibe with this wonderful film. It is such a good adaptation that it can convey the themes and appeal of Animal Crossing arguably even better than the games can! Dan's Rating: 5/5 Adpatation 4/5 Movie Maxie's Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 5/5 Movie Next Month: Prince of Persia (2010) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is the 2007 Hitman film! Agent 47 is caught in a body double conspiracy while being hunted down by his own organization. There's a lot of good moments but ultimately it's less than the sum of its own parts. Our Rating: 1/5 Adaptation 2/5 Movie Next Month: Dōbutsu no Mori (2006) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Ryu Ga Gotoku! It's the Yakuza movie! It's kind of insane, it's kind of Pulp Fiction, it's kind of mostly about a couple of of teen robbers. It sure does have Goro Majima though! Not to mention CG helicopters, daip'd up Nishiki, and Kazama! Dan's Rating: 4/5 Movie 1.5/5 Adaptation Maxie's Rating: ?/? Adaptation 3/5 Quality Jordan's Rating: 4/5 Movie 1/5 Adaptation 4/5 Goro Majima Argyle's Rating: 3.5/5 Adaptation 1.5/5 Movie Next Month: Hitman (2007) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Takasi Miike's 2012 Ace Attorney Film! Joining us are Takashi Miike fan Gigalithic and Ace Attorney fan Elliott! Between the two two of them we ended having a lot to say about this film, which frankly is probably the best movie we're ever going to watch on here. Everyone's Rating: 5/5 Film 5/5 Adaptation Next Month: Ryu Ga Gotoku (AKA The Yakuza Movie) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie | Gigalithic | Elliott
This month's movie is Uwe Boll's Alone in The Dark! This movie has a reputation of being "the worst film of all time". This was likely hyperbole from 00s gamers, but that doesn't mean the movie couldn't stand to do a lot better. The movie wants to be 5 different genres, none of which fit with the game, and the opening text crawl needlessly explains all the plot twists before it can even start. Rest in piss, Lowtax. Dan's Rating: 0/5 Adaptation 3/5 Film Maxie's Rating: 0/5 Adaptation 1-2/5 Film Next Month: Ace Attorney (2012) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month's movie is Resident Evil! Resident Evil film expert Morgan joins us to discuss another classic Paul W.S. Anderson film, the lost legacy of mall chain stores, and what happens when you feed a computer 2000 hours of kids youtube. Dan's Rating: 3/5 Adaptation 4/5 Film Maxie's Rating: 4/5 Adaptation 5/5 Film Morgan's Rating: 2/5 Adaptation 3/5 Film Next Month: Alone in the Dark (2005) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie | Morgan
This month's movie is Mortal Kombat (1995)! This is probably the best one since our first episode. An overall decent martial arts film that takes a considerable amount of effort in having the most amount of violence permissible in a PG-13 film. Reptile looks like a cereal mascot, Kitana gives Liu Kang adventure game hints, and Art Lean dies for our sins. Dan's Rating: 4/5 Adaptation 3.5/5 Overall Quality Maxie's Rating: 5/5 Adaptation 3.5/5 Overall Quality Next Month: Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This was kind of a nothing movie. Most conflict is set aside, immediately resolved, or forgotten. Lucario's in it, though! And lots of other pokemon! Maxie's rating: 1/3 Adaptation 1/26 Quality Dan's rating: 1/5 Adaptation 2/5 Quality Next month: Mortal Kombat (1995) Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
For July we discuss the infamous Street Fighter movie! Unlike Super Mario Bros, this movie deserves its hate! Jean Claude Van Damme was paid 8 million dollars to be the worst character in the movie! Raul Julia spent the last months of his life giving his all as M. Bison! And most everyone else has managed to have a decent acting career despite being in this travesty! Is this movie fascist? Kinda! Our rating: 1/5 Adaptation 2/5 Film Next Month: Pokemon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
This month we celebrate Sonic's 30th anniversary with the Sonic OVA! This movie's got a lot going aesthetically, but gets a little incomprehensible and the plot eventually just devolves into DBZ fights. We also discuss e3, borderlands film news, and the Morton-Jenkel Cut. Dan's Rating: 4/5 Adaptation 4/5 Quality Maxie's Rating: 4/5 Adaptation, 5/5 Quality (Part 1) 2/5 Quality (Part 2) Next month: Street Fighter: The Movie Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie
In our inaugural episode, we discuss the ur-video game movie, Super Mario Bros! This movie is actually pretty good! Not perfect, but definitely good. Mario needs to trust the fungus, Luigi needs to learn to plumb, and Big Bertha needs more screentime. Rating: 0/5 Adaptation, 4/5 Quality Next month: The Sonic the Hedgehog OVA Twitter | Discord Dan | Maxie Noise Space