From Tomb Raider to Need for Speed: A Hollywood guide movies based on video games

Agent 47, the big budget adaptation of the widely popular video game Hitman hit theatres on Friday. But going by the reviews, we won’t necessarily recommend you go out and watch it.

This will be the second time the Hollywood has attempted to bring Agent 47 to the silver screen. In 2007, Hitman hit the big screens but with equally dismal reviews — a 14 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes (Agent 47 stands at 7 percent).

But making movies based on video games is not new in Hollywood.

Neither is their failure.

In the early 1990s, Hollywood ventured into new and previously uncharted territory: Video game movie adaptations. The big action movies of the 1980s were fading away and Hollywood was in search of the next best thing, which according to its bigwigs was movies based on video games.

The video games developers themselves were putting much of their attention into the gameplay rather than the story arc, but that didn’t stop Hollywood from giving various franchises an outing in theatres.

Over the years, the industry has churned out dozens of such movies from low-budget productions to ones starring Hollywood superstars. But one thing has remained constant: The movies have all been terrible.

Here is a list of some the most memorable (or forgettable) movies based on video games:

Super Mario Bros. (1993)

Yes, the best thing of your childhood was turned into a movie. Needless to say a movie based on a side-scrolling character whose only task is to save a princess was tortuous.

Fun Fact: The movie starred, Dennis Hopper as King Koopa.

Street Fighter (1994)

Steven E de Souza, who had worked on the screenplay of Die Hard and Die Hard 2, in 1988 and 1990, receptively, ventured feature film direction with Street Fighter. Understandably, the movie remains his only feature-length direction effort.

Fun Fact: Another attempt was made at the game in 2009’s Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. It was even worse.

Mortal Kombat (1995)

Three unknowing martial artists are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will decide the fate of the world. Enough said.

Fun Fact: Frank Welker, the voice artist for some of the most iconic cartoon characters, including Scooby-Doo, provided the voice for the reptilian Shao Kahn.

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

Perhaps the only one which has stood the test of time slightly better than the rest, featured Hollywood heavyweight Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft.

Fun Fact: The movie featured Iain Glen, now famous for his role of Jorah Mormont in Game of Thrones.

Resident Evil (2002)

This one takes the prize for the most number of movie sequels based on a video game. Over the years the movie became popular for some of its action sequences, but remains largely forgettable.

Fun Fact: Milla Jovovich stars in all five movies and will also be a part of the fifth one due to release in 2016.

Doom (2005)

In his early days of acting, Dwayne Johnson starred in this one. But one thing’s for sure: His crowning as the highest grossing actor of 2013 had nothing to do with this movie.

Fun Fact: The first person shooter view sequence in the movie took about 14 days to shoot.

Max Payne (2008)

One of the most iconic games of all times (with an incredible story arc for a video game) turned into a movie starring Mark Wahlberg! What could possibly go wrong? Turns out, everything. This one defined every logic of film making in every way possible to some disastrous results.

Fun Fact: Nothing was fun in this movie.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)

A bearable (but mostly full of cliches and some cringe worthy acting) movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal and the man who appears in every movie ever, Ben Kingsley.

Fun Fact: The main lead role of prince was firstly offered to Hrithik Roshan. (Oh yes!)

Need for Speed (2014)

The only reason anyone paid any attention to this movies was because it starred Breaking Bad fame Aaron Paul.

Fun Fact: The title for the movie comes from a famous line in 1986 Top Gun, “I feel the need. The need… for speed!” by Tom Cruise’s character Maverick.

Final word: The movies, no matter how incredibly bad can make for a fun watch on a lazy weekend.