So, I haven't seen the movie about Cluedo, but assuming by "game movie" we're talking all games or all non-computer games (as opposed to strictly board games or board & card games), Dungeons & Dragons 2023 was fucking fantastic.
If you liked Honor Among Thieves (like I did), you should also really enjoy Clue. It also leans into comedy and irreverence. Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, it's old but it holds up very well.
I'm in the minority, but I found it enjoyable. Obviously it's not a great movie, but if you just want to turn your brain off for a bit and watch some action and explosions, it's a pretty fun movie to watch.
That’s the thing. There’s no shortage of ideas. Hollywood is not out of ideas. They’re out of courage. They’re terrified of taking a risk on anything that’s not attached to some existing brand.
Clue wasn't done right during its theatrical run though.
As originally designed, they tried to pull off a theater gimmick where every time you went to see the movie, you got a different ending. Only one of the three endings was played. It was supposed to be reminiscent of the board game in which the same mystery can have multiple solutions. So to get all the content, you had to pay at least three ticket prices. This made the finished film about an hour long, and felt kind of scammy.
The television release of the film strung all three endings together with that "that's what could have happened, but here's what really happened" text screen. This increased the run time, kept the energy up for a much longer finale, and just...increased the chaos. Plus it invented a joke, with "communism is just a red herring" brought up three times in three different contexts.
Besides, I think it works better as a TV movie. It's great for movie night with your friends. Having it boom down at you from the big screen in a theater feels like it would be a bit much.
I have the opposite opinion. Three different endings were a fascinating gimmick and a novelty. I wouldn't want that for every movie, but once in a while this is kind of refreshing. And in this movie it worked perfectly, it was made for this.
And in a time where movies go to streaming in a month anyway I would be perfectly fine with that.
Was it this production company that did Battleship though? I don't think they were around back then.
I'm definitely with you on Hollywood apparently bring out of ideas, and I don't think Monopoly is a great idea for a movie ... Just that if any producers can pull it off, it'll be them.
That said, the Clue movie from the 80s was actually good. Perhaps with Monopoly (unlike Battleship) having an actual established character of sorts, that could make all the difference.
Either way, I'm way more excited for The Sims movie that these folks are also making. I think that genuinely offers some real possibilities for storytelling a la what they did with Barbie.
It could be a biting criticism of capitalism, as that's what the game was originally designed as. Although there's no way Parker Brothers would allow that.
I hope they follow the real rules and not house rules. Movies gonna be 35 minutes of someone getting lucky and slowly buying up everything. the rest of the movie is the cast now working two jobs to pay the rent that was raised so that whoever is winning can buy boardwalk. The poorest one is constantly having to pay to get out of jail.