Exploring the true story of one of the most iconic early video games in history in the form of a Cold War thriller, Apple TV+ delivers one of the biggest broadcast movie launches this year with “Tetris,” which debuts on the service on the 31 March
“Kingsman” and “Rocketman” star Taron Egerton plays Dutch-born American video game entrepreneur Henk Rogers who discovers TETRIS in 1988, and then risks everything by traveling to the Soviet Union, where he joins forces with inventor Alexey Pajitnov to bring the game to. the masses
Toby Jones, Roger Allam, Anthony Boyle, Togo Igawa, Ken Yamamura, Ben Miles, and Matthew Marsh also star while Jon S. Baird directs. With the film premiering at SXSW, enough reviews are out that the film has achieved an 83% (6.7/10) score on Rotten Tomatoes from over 21 reviews so far.
Here is a sample of quotes:
“Picture ‘Tetris’ as a Lophian version of John Le Carre’s ‘The Russian House’.” – Peter DeBruge, Variety
“Somewhere along the way in Jon S. Baird’s fleet and compelling fictional look at the invention of Tetris, you forget you’re watching a movie about a video game.” – Lovia Gyarkye, Hollywood Reporter
“Combining the stranger-than-fiction story of its creation with an ardent embrace of the game’s wider aesthetic and nostalgia, Tetris is a surprisingly smart, silly and satisfying adventure.” – Kristy Puchko, Mashable
“The entire cast is superb here in a film that kept me on edge more than any Bourne film ever could.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline
“No, not all the pieces fit together, and it certainly doesn’t get faster as the game goes on (something it could do well to emulate from the game itself), but it has players to root for and a story that keeps you leveling up.” – Kate Erbland, IndieWire
“Tetris finds its fun in the details of contracts and the specifics of deal-making, realizing that even when it’s not on a screen in your hands, it’s all one big game.” – Ben Lee, The Guardian
“‘Tetris’ skims the surface of a genuinely quirky ‘true story’ thriller that too often plays out as a Disneyized version of ‘The Social Network’.” – Simon Abrams, The Wrap.
“Though it never quite swims past the shallows of its money-minded plot, this fictionalized account of the licensing battle over hit puzzler Tetris is mostly absorbing and exuberant.” – Dan John, Empire
“The creation of Tetris and its worldwide spread is a great story, but the complexity of its thorny rights issues and lawsuits is no match for the cartoon villain and heavy dramatization.” – Michael McWhertor, Polygon
The film’s director John S. Baird recently told Den of Geek that the film is more like real life than you might expect – “90% of it, we really stuck to the (real) story. We just jazzed up the other 10% because it’s not a documentary.”
“Tetris” will be released exclusively on Apple TV+ on March 31.