Is the Tetris Movie Accurate? 

I wasn't expecting game grumps to be in a movie today but oh well

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!

"Those aren't level 28 colors, _Rob_ " 😂😂😂

I love how Kevin Maxwell was just like “Sounds about right, but you’re giving my dad too much credit.”

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.

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 🎉

I really admire your work and have enjoyed learning about the classic tetris community through your accessible and compelling coverage

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!

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! :)

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.

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.

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.

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.

How chill kevin maxwell was about his portrayal made me like him lol

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

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.

Great input as always, Scout! I was pleasantly surprised by the movie.

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"

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

Every video on this channel is always top notch!

awesome stuff, this is my favorite tetris movie review so far

The car chase made me roll my eyes but overall it was great

Very nice review!

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.

Excellent review.

still a fun watch but I highly recommend watching this along with the Gaming Historian documentary back to back

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?"

YES Was very waiting for this yup!

Glad you said it’s almost accurate. I also knew it.

I really loved this film! I thought it was great, and it got me playing more Tetris, so that's a plus.

Bro is spitting out videos so fast

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.

It spiked the price in Tengen Tetris also

I'm pretty sure this channel is a better source for quality tetris content than any of the others you mentioned.

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.

Journey before Destination

I watched it 5-7 times in a row within the week of release. It was genuinely entertaining.

4:12 my favorite game

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

9 min, never clicked so fast on a vid after release :D

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.

you should do a review of nes tengen tetris

let's gooo

Broken record alert: aGameScout is phenomenal.

Blue Scuti should be in the Tetris movie 2

A nice movie about a story that was a little too focused on making Henk a superhero, but apart from that, it's enjoyable 🤔

I played Tetris in Emacs while watching this.

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.

TUGI!

I liked the first movie. Can’t wait for Tetris 2 the rise of Jonas. And Tetris 3 revenge of the rollers.

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

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.

whoops I stumbled on aFilmScout's channel. He does look familiar though..

But did they steal his pants!?

Norm is the best. Caruso and Macdonald.

THE WHAT NOW?

At this point it's more fun to watch Tetris than football

Man, what a family the Maxwell's are. What a Wikipedia binge-reading feast.

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.

0:15 wtf, is he your father?

What’s up?

7:31 Wait, how is that not suitable? The movie was literally rated R

literally 1984

tetris

Kevin Maxwell is like only the 3th worst person in his family.

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

you coulda said'spoilers' xd

Second

54th comment

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

Gaming Historian did it better!

i couldnt even finish this it was just too boring

Third dislike!! :)

My review is that the movie is usa propaganda against russia

I liked the subplot of why communism doesn’t work…take note Gen Z