The Gamer's Quarter

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

So Kotaku isn't worthless! It seems like they've tapped into a story about a film (Reign Over Me starring.... Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle) that will possibly handle games right for the first time ever: as the cohesive experience of the creator and of the player.

It may sound a little weird or perhaps even overwrought, but the film is going to attempt to have the main character deal with the after math of 9/11 by playing Shadow of the Colossus over and over again. Somehow dealing with falling building by looking at falling giants.

I haven't been interested in seeing an Adam Sandler movie in over a decade. But this seems like a first.

I think that this could be a major breakthrough for the medium of games.
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aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

WTF
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:23 pm Post subject:

thank you, o wise, benevolant hollywood, for shining a ray of light onto our most unworthy medium.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:25 pm Post subject:

ApM · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 2:40 pm Post subject:

Hey Matt, Punch-Drunk Love is pretty good.

Ethoscapade · . Joined: 30 Oct 2005 Posts: 276

uhhhh

dess =/

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

I generally can't stand popular culture references in movies, even references to things that I like (though that's never happened before that I can remember). I think this could be much better if they made up a video game that doesn't already exist. But it doesn't matter much what I think--there's very little chance I'd watch it either way because I've largely given up on movies.

If this gets more people to play SotC then it's for a good cause, I guess. It would be funny if they replaced the sound with Atari 2600 Pac-Man, just like most other movies and television shows that show someone playing a video game. (It must be in some standard sound library.)

antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

SuperWes · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 7:33 pm Post subject:

I didn't even click on this thread because I thought it was some pretentious fuck making an independent movie about gaming, but now that I see that it's a pretentious fuck making a Hollywood movie about gaming I'm stoked. This sounds like a movie I need to take my mom to to help her understand that all gaming isn't Grand Theft Auto.

-Wes
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

Well, you know, it's not actually "a movie about gaming". It's about post-9/11 grief, and how this guy deals with it. Actually, it sounds a bit like the Jeff Bridges film Fearless...

The fact that SotC is in it, as a means of dealing with this grief -- somewhat prominently, it seems -- is simply cool, though.
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dessgeega · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:06 pm Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 8:46 pm Post subject:

antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

Heh. Well, I get the IC in-joke thing, but creepy?

Maybe if Sandler is anything like his character in Punch Drunk Love, which was pretty creepy. It was also very funny, though, and there was some awkward truth to it. Having once dealt with panic attacks and hiding from the world myself, I kind of appreciated it.

Anyway, nah. I don't think there's anything creepy about this.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:05 pm Post subject:

dude. it's NGJ the game the film the thread.

"to put these attacks in perspective i played shadow of the colossus. i felt like each falling giant was a fragment of the greatest colossus of all - the colossus of love and fear."

[single tear rolls down cheek as credits roll]
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

Again, the movie is evidently not just 2 hours of Adam Sandler sitting on a couch and solemnly playing Shadow of the Colossus with a box of tissues at his side.

My feeling is maybe you're being a little bit cynical about this.
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dhex · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:53 pm Post subject:

not cynical, just kind of amazed.

of all the games to pick, right?
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FortNinety · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:56 pm Post subject:

Thanks Hollywood, for ruining one of my favorite games.

FortNinety · Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2007 10:57 pm Post subject:

I wonder if Simon wants me to review this movie for GSW? I hope not...

antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

Of course, in NYC you have to risk 11 bucks to find out.
But money or no, is a few minutes of SotC footage worth spending 2 hours wanting to strangulate yourself with red vines for? This dude's last couple movies were Ben Affleck and Kevin Costner vehicles, after all.

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

BUT I CAN'T KILL A COLOSSUS NOW WITHOUT THINKING OF ADAM SANDLER

BLOO BLOO BLOO
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wourme · . Joined: 01 Jul 2005 Posts: 362 Location: Maridia

dhex · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 7:34 am Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

For a little more clarity:

Aparently the film sucks. The SotC parts are just something happening in the background (though I'm sure it could be spun in any direction). And Sandler's wife, daughter, and dog died from being in one of the planes and now he can't deal with reality.

I'm guessing this same movie could have been done w/o aping 9/11.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

The dog too?

;_;

All joking aside, I'm surprised about the response to this. Director intelligently places game into film (regardless of the film's quality) to fit the themes of the work. What's wrong with that?

It's like complaining that pop music is being used in soundtracks now, or something. People complain endlessly when people are seen holding controllers upside down and Pac-man sound effects play, and now someone has placed a game in a film as a meaningful piece of background no one is happy either.

I just really don't see what the problem is.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

No, I don't have a problem with it at all! I think it's honestly a good thing and a step in the right direction. It's a shame it's in a bad (aparently) movie.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

I wun't cussin' you, Shaper.

I mean, I have been cussing this film for ages on the horrible adverts (though "the first cut is the deepest" now makes me think of the first stab into a Colossus, amusingly) but I just think this is interesting. I'm kind of struggling to see how it could be bad.
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

dhex · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:29 am Post subject:

for the record i just thought it was really funny. it's like, uh, something [person xyz] would have posted, except in movie form.
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aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Well... I mean, is it really so bad to think someone might zone out with a video game when dealing with grief?

I know I have, the same way I've watched any old fucking movie to not have to think, or listened to music really loudly. Makes perfect sense to me.

Personally, it would be /much/ funnier if he was playing Katamari and kept rolling the ball into the facsimile of New York. While crying.
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dhex · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:44 am Post subject:

bad, no. i mean, i spent three days stoned out of my gourd and afraid to call my friends' parents houses because i didn't want to hear their mom tell me they were dead, so i totally get that.

it's just of all games to pick, i mean, it's perfect for this particular memeplex.
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aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

FortNinety · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:57 am Post subject:

Mister Toups · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject:

SuperWes · Posted: Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:41 pm Post subject:

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

Clearly you have never been in a line at a geek convention.

Clearly you have never lived.
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aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Yeah, I've never had the chance to use pictochat at GDC or anything, but some hilarious shit has happened across it I'm told.

Turns out it was genius after all!
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antitype · . Joined: 11 Jan 2006 Posts: 292

I went and saw this movie with my brother this evening.

So I'm sure people on the internet will be making fun of Adam Sandler singing-screaming "REEEEEIGN OVER MEEEAAGGGH" in one particular scene, and perhaps rightly so (because that was just a bit over the top), but otherwise I thought it was a very, very good movie.

The involvement of "Shadows of Colossus" wasn't as profound as we might've guessed, and Adam Sandler is guilty of perpetuating the stupid "wiggle your fingers on the controller" film fallacy, but it was still kind of cool to see something recognizable rather than some generic alien bloop-fest. It was very much the lonely game (lol), which is still better and more fitting than plenty of other possibilities.

I guess I just liked it because I like seeing people work through their pain and help others along the way. It was also unexpectedly quite hilarious in parts!
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Mr. Mechanical · Friendly Stranger Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 1276

player 2 · . Joined: 10 Jul 2005 Posts: 585 Location: Madison, WI USA

Remember when you had a favorite band that the popular kids started to like so then you hated them because it's popular but deep down inside you thought the band was cool and then...
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Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

dhex · Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:16 pm Post subject: