15. ‘Rampage’ (2018)

An adaptation of everybody’s favorite arcade game about a giant ape (that isn’t ‘Donkey Kong’), ‘Rampage’ is definitely in the top 5 films about Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson fighting mutant animals. Essentially a big-budget Syfy B-film, Brad Peyton’s loose adaptation of the Midway game series casts Johnson as a primate scientist (a scientist with those muscles? sure!) who must team up with a giant mutated gorilla to defeat a giant mutant wolf and a giant alligator. The plot is about as intellectual as a pile of monkey dung, but the ensemble is solid — Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Joe Manganiello are highlights — and the action is better than it needs to be. Ultimately, ‘Rampage’ isn’t exactly high art, but it’s the type of cheesy dumb that people want from a video game film. 

14. ‘Gran Turismo’ (2023)

If you’ve ever watched a sports film and thought it would be significantly improved if the lead character’s main personality trait was being a gamer, ‘Gran Turismo’ is here to provide the geek-to-jock storyline of your dreams. Based on the real-life story of Jann Mardenborough, a British teenager who went from an avid player of the racing simulation video game series to a professional racer in his own right, ‘Gran Turismo’ feels like a shamelessly crass ad half the time. Still, if you can give in to its shiny corporate charms, you’ll find a film that delivers some genuinely great racing scenes that get the blood pumping enough to overcome the iffy character development. Is this the type of film we thought Neill Blomkamp would be making when ‘District 9’ premiered 15 years ago? No. Still, he shoots the hell out of ‘Gran Turismo,’ and makes it a lot better than it really has much right to be.  

13. ‘Far Cry’ (2008)

Uwe Boll’s video game films are not, to put it bluntly, good. If we were trapped on a desert island with only one of his movies to watch for the rest of our lives, though, we’d select his loose adaptation of first-person shooter ‘Far Cry’ in a heartbeat. It’s a standard enough action film about a badass ex-soldier hired to help a journalist investigate a secret South Asian island, where a scientist is secretly running experiments to create a new breed of super soldiers. A few things help make it far more watchable than Boll’s other works. One, it’s a bit more self-aware, with the main hero (Til Schweiger) possessing a dry wit that invites the audience to not take much of the adventure too seriously. Second, Udo Kier gets a lot of screentime as the antagonist, and he’s a charismatic hoot. More Udo Kier is never a bad thing. 

12. ‘Double Dragon’ (1994)

From a perspective that prioritizes good taste and basic competence in filmmaking, ‘Double Dragon’ is a horrible movie. But by the standards of the video game canon, the beat ’em up adaptation succeeds wildly just by virtue of being entertaining. James Yukich’s adaptation casts Mark Dacascos and Scott Wolf as brothers Jimmy and Billy Lee, as they kick, punch, and bash their way through a post-apocalyptic 2007 California in their quest to protect a mystical dragon medallion from evil overlord Koga Shuko (a gloriously hammy Robert Patrick, who knows exactly what type of film he’s in). It’s massively cheesy, but weird enough to work, with endearing performances (including from Alyssa Milano as the female lead), and genuinely good martial arts fights. Plus, Vanna White, George Hamilton, and Andy Dick appear as newscasters, in a segment that’s truly what-the-hell in the best way. 

11. ‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’ (2021)

The Paul W.S. Anderson ‘Resident Evil’ film series is controversial among fans of the classic video game horror franchise for its massive alterations to the lore. ‘Welcome to Raccoon City,’ a 2021 franchise reboot, acts as a balm for purists by adapting the plots of the first and second games in a far more faithful manner. The four iconic leads from the games are at the forefront with decent casting for them all (especially Kaya Scodelario as central lead Claire), as they struggle to survive a a zombie outbreak in the titular metropolis. The tone melds the horror and the action from the franchise faithfully, and there’s appearances by further iconic characters like Albert Wesker (Tom Hopper) and Ada Wong (Lily Gao). But the film isn’t just pure fanservice; it’s a solid B-movie style horror movie in its own right, with good action and thrills that overcomes some spotty CGI. 

10. ‘Pokémon: Detective Pikachu’ (2019)

‘Pokémon: Detective Pikachu’ is never quite as fun or as weird as you want it to be, but it coasts by thanks to one strong quality: Pikachu is just so gosh darn adorable. Okay, that’s not all it has going for it, but the film — from director Rob Letterman — distinguishes itself through its inventive visual design and creative 3D redesigns for some of the most famous creatures in the blockbuster Nintendo JRPG series. The eponymous electric rodent gets a furry but still absolutely precious look, while other icons of the series like Charizard and Mewtwo look more intimidating than ever in the flesh. The plot of the film — very loosely based on a little-played point-and-click spinoff — is a bit lackluster, but Ryan Reynolds is a good voice for the titular hero, Justice Smith is a likable protagonist, and the general vibes of the movie manage to carry it to the realm of ‘pretty good.’

9. ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ (2001)

A lot of the great and iconic video game franchises that get adapted for film typically end up as, essentially, mediocre and anonymous action movies. The ‘Tomb Raider’ series of games didn’t exactly escape this fate, but what makes the film stand out is the pitch-perfect casting at its center. Lara Croft is one of the most iconic video game heroines this side of Samus Aran, and director Samuel West needed a true star to portray the cool-headed and gun-toting archaeologist. He found a perfect fit in Angelina Jolie, the type of magnetic performer who can make the most generic thriller pop, and her work (plus an assist from Iain Glen as the villain and a pre-Bond Daniel Craig as the love interest) makes an otherwise middling film watchable. 

8. ‘Doom’ (2005)

The 2005 ‘Doom’ film is best remembered for the scene that emulates the original seminal shooter’s first-person perspective, as lead character Reaper (Karl Urban) slaughters waves of demons and zombies. It’s a goofy but genius choice from director Andrzej Bartkowiak and visual effects supervisor Jon Farhat, paying gleeful ode to the original game in a way that’s genuinely thrilling and fun to watch. The rest of the film — a sci-fi ‘Aliens’ spin about marines fighting demons on a research facility — is watchable if derivative, thanks to Urban’s charisma and a rare villain turn from Dwayne Johnson. 

7. ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ (2022)

The first ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie was decent enough, but suffered a little from putting the snarky super-fast title character (voiced by a pitch-perfect Ben Schwartz) in a generic kids movie premise. ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ is a massive improvement by feeling a bit more like…well, like a ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’ movie. Sonic is joined by his two most iconic friends in the film: the super-cute genius fox Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey, reprising her long-running role from the original game series) and his gruff rival Knuckles (Idris Elba, terrific). Add back in Jim Carrey’s ridiculous but lovably hammy work as main villain Dr. Robotnik, and you have all the classic characters, in a form that does them justice. All the best points of the original film are back (James Marsden is still in this, fret not), and director Jeff Fowler delivers superior action scenes and comedy. The result feels like a classic video game sequel that irons out all the kinks and questionable game design choices, to become what the original was trying to be all along. 

6. ‘Super Mario Bros.’ (1993)

If you’re looking for a faithful ‘Super Mario Bros.’ movie, check out the 2023 animated version. If you’re looking for an interesting ‘Super Mario Bros.’ movie, then Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel’s 1993 live-action effort is a must-watch. An utter weirdo film that barely resembles what anyone thinks about when they think about Mario, the film jettisons most of what we know about the Mushroom Kingdom for a story about the Italian-American Mario (Bob Hoskins) and Luigi (John Leguizamo) journeying to the interdimensional world of Dinohatten (?) to rescue NYU student Daisy (Samantha Mathis), a descendant of the dinosaurs (??), from Dennis Hopper’s treacherous ‘President Koopa’ (???) who is apparently supposed to be Bowser from the games but looks like the picture used in this entry.

The whole film is a fever-dream, and it’s no surprise that Nintendo hates the thing. But its departures and borderline avant-garde levels of nonsense are precisely what makes it so watchable and memorable. And, when you consider how weird Mario games really are, and how much they thrive on experimentation, the wild swings of the first ‘Super Mario Bros.’ movie suddenly seem less like bad ideas and more in keeping with the original spirit of the games than the boring faithfulness of the 2023 film. 

5. ‘Mortal Kombat’ (1995)

Paul W.S. Anderson spent years pumping out ‘Resident Evil’ films, but the director’s greatest video game movie remains his first, 1995’s ‘Mortal Kombat’ film adaptation. Part of what makes it so good is that it doesn’t even try to elevate the original premise into something more complicated or prestigious. A group of heroes gather to take part in the martial arts tournament of the title, held to determine the fates of Earth and the otherworldly Outworld dimension. That’s it. That’s all the film is, and all it needs to be. While it unfortunately tones down the bloodshed that made the original game such a controversial sensation, ‘Mortal Kombat’ otherwise gets the basics down pat: there’s some hot girls. There’s some hot guys. And there’s some sweaty, goofy fun and well-choreographed fights. What’s not to like? 

4. ‘Street Fighter’ (1994)

A camp masterpiece, ‘Street Fighter’ features the all-time greatest performance in any video game film, in the form of Raul Julia’s work as M. Bison. Julia took the role because his kids were fans of the original Capcom video game series, and it would end up being his last, as he succumbed to cancer shortly after filming. And the actor commits, going hard as the hammy, over-the-top military dictator, birthing iconic meme (‘of course!’) after meme (‘but for me, it was Tuesday’). The rest of the film can’t live up to Julia’s greatness, but director Steven E. de Souza wisely keeps the film’s tone over-the-top and not too serious, with ridiculous action scenes and performances from a wild cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme as Guile, Ming-Na Wen as Chung Li, Damian Chapa as Ken, Byron Mann as Ryu, and Kylie Minogue as Cammy. The result is a total cheesy blast, with a truly great villain at its center. 

3. ‘Silent Hill’ (2006)

The original ‘Silent Hill’ video games are perhaps the scariest and most unsettling horror games of all time, nightmares in which unsuspecting heroes are plunged into a town filled with fog and horrifying monsters that reflect their darkest secrets. That’s a lot to live up to, and the first ‘Silent Hill’ film doesn’t quite manage. But it comes surprisingly close.

Christophe Gans’ adaptation of the horror franchise follows the original film’s plot fairly closely, albeit with major alterations, including changing the gender of the protagonist. Radha Mitchell plays Rose, who takes her adopted daughter to the town of Silent Hill, only to be separated from her after a car crash. From there, Rose searches the town desperately for her and encounters a series of horrific nightmare images. And it’s truly nightmarish, with Gans displaying a great eye for visual effects and scares that remain true to the spirit of the games while still feeling new and original. Not everything about the film hits perfectly (the inclusion of the iconic villain Pyramid Head from the second game comes off as completely random), but by and large, it succeeds as an adaptation of the games and as a solid enough horror movie in and of itself. 

2. ‘Werewolves Within’ (2021)

Who would have thought that one of the few genuinely good video game movies would be based on a barely remembered VR game? Although saying ‘Werewolves Within’ is based on the 2016 game of the same name is pushing it; the original Ubisoft title had no real story, focusing instead on placing the player in a medieval werewolf-themed version of classic social deduction game Mafia. The film, from Josh Ruben, takes the basic premise of ‘trying to figure out who the werewolf is’ and throws literally everything else out, transplanting the wolf-and-mouse games to the residents of a small town trapped in a snowed-in lodge. The result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s great fun — the rare horror comedy that manages to be snappy and funny while still delivering scares and suspense. And the game cast of comic actors is on point throughout, with highlights including Michaela Watkins, Harvey Guillén, and especially Sam Richardson as the polite forest ranger hero.  
 

1. ‘Ace Attorney’ (2012)

Even the most faithful video game movie can’t capture the fundamental appeal of its original source material: without the interactive element, the experience will always be completely different. But what makes the 2012 Japanese ‘Ace Attorney’ film so incredibly fun is how much it aims to recapture the experience of playing the original courtroom visual novels on your Nintendo DS, and actually manages to almost completely succeed. Directed by Takashi Miike (yes, the guy behind ‘Audition’), the film brings all of the elements from the original series about hapless public defender Phoenix Wright to the big screen: the goofy hairstyles, the wacky cases involving interrogating parrots, the hammy judges and prosecutors and witnesses. Entire scenes replicate the game’s camera angles and gameplay loop. And it goes one step further by adding in new elements, including holographic evidence windows that look like the game’s inventory screen, to further replicate its source material. None of this would work if the actual result wasn’t good, but ‘Ace Attorney’ still compels regardless of your investment in the original, thanks to great performances (Hiroki Narimiya brings the perfect comedy as Wright) and legitimately thrilling cases. It’s not just good for a video game movie, it’s a genuinely great video game movie.