Tetris
Tetris
An enterprising game developer risks everything in a race to outmaneuver duplicitous insiders to negotiate a deal with Soviet Union bureaucrats for the international licensing rights to what would eventually become one of the most recognizable and widely played games in history.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 3, 2025
Probably the second best mid 80’s scrappy underdog story featuring multiple competitors vying for an exclusive contract with a future worldwide sensation that I’ve seen in the last two days.
Tetris while entertaining enough suffers from massive embellishments of the truth. In Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) pursuit of a deal for the game he apparently encounters Russian double agents, has death threats levied at his wife and children at home and gets pursued in a high speed car chase through the streets and alleys of Moscow with Nintendo executives along side him. Rather than make the film more exciting, these exaggerations merely draw attention to the fact that there’s really not enough of a story here. Or at least the writer’s didn’t feel like there was. Backroom deals, contract negotiations and double crosses, etc can be made tense and exciting without car chases and double agents. With properties like the Air Jordan, Tetris, Facebook, the audience already knows the massive value that’s at stake. Add in some truly unlikeable villains in the Maxwell Communications Corporation (Robert Maxwell is Ghislaine Maxwell’s father 😬) and I really didn’t think the embellishments were warranted and actually did more to undercut the real drama that unfolded. Looks, it’s not a bad watch. I’m sure my opinion is being negatively affected by the fact that I watched Air yesterday, which I much preferred. But even still, I likely won’t ever think about this movie again.