‘Tetris Review
Let's just say it right away: Tetris is a fun movie. Equal parts heist thriller, corporate espionage film and horror story, all set in the 20th century. Wrapped in a story of geopolitical intrigue set in the second half of the 20th century, Tetris is fought with courage and ingenuity.
Noah Pink's script begins with a scene that will have people squirming on the couch (this movie, which debuted on AppleTV+ this weekend, will be seen by many people). With the Bank of Tokyo expansion, the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nintendo's Japan office, and Tetris expanding to the Soviet Union, we've learned more than we knew about video game rights, such as rights. They are divided between computers, arcades, video game systems and portable video games - between game systems.
But his efforts to produce the show are aided by director John S. Baird's clean, precise writing and sharp direction, and Taron Egerton's wizarding Mirth . Egerton plays Hank Rogers, a businessman trying to lure consumers into a digital version of the ancient Chinese game of Go. No one has much interest in Go. But whoever plays Tetris in the booth next to him falls in love. One problem: rights are hard to come by, because they're owned by the Soviet bureaucracy and bought for distribution in every territory except Japan by Robert Stein (Toby Jones), who sold the rights to corrupt British billionaire Robert Maxwell (now). Alam) and his abusive nephew Kevin (Anthony Boyle).
Since we're talking about intellectual property contracts, the following is more interesting than it should be. The film is mostly set in 1988 when the Berlin Wall came down; The Soviet heroes overhear Henk's conversation with Tetris creator Alexei Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov) in grim, comic offices, almost smothered in red lights to give a diabolical glow to the entire KGB hideout. As a critic rather than a historian, I couldn't help but worry about Henk and Alexei's car chase and desperate flight from Moscow at the end of the film, which certainly never happened. I actually appreciate it for a little adrenaline rush.
Again, the movie is fun and good. But what makes it so interesting is that it is pure propaganda for globalized trade and free movement of trade. Perhaps to celebrate the triumph of the neoliberal will. Tetris is not completely hidden. The main character says he's Dutch, grew up in New York and now lives in Japan with his wife Akemi (Ian Nagabuchi). At one point, Alexey literally said, "Good ideas have no limits."
The villains depicted are two extremes of the communist-capitalist divide: KGB officials who use violence and intimidation to make money for their country, and British businessmen who warn against corruption and bribery. Against the excesses of capitalism, but also to remind us that cheaters never get ahead. The heroes are entrepreneurs from all over the world, intrepid Soviets who want more for their society, and a video game company too innocent to fall for corporate responses.
Tetris is the first of what we call "branded films" to hit screens in the coming months, before Air (Amazon's Ben Affleck feature film about the creation of Air Jordan) and Blackberry (by Glenn Hawthorne). The rise and fall of the iPhone predecessor). I haven't seen the last two (and I think Blackberry is more suspicious of corporate life than Tetris or Air ), but there is something... there is something fun to buy from the biggest technology companies in the world (Apple and Amazon). . Movies about the exciting and luxurious origins of two of the world's most popular brands (Tetris and Air Jordan).
