Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie

Plot synopsis:
In 1983, 2 million copies of the "worst video game of all time", ET for the Atari 2600, are dumped into a landfill outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the present day, game executive Mandi (Sarah Glendening) of Cockburn Industries, Inc. proposes to her bosses creating an intentionally bad sequel, ET 2. Thanks to the popularity and success of the Angry Video Game Nerd, sales of poorly made video games have increased dramatically, and a review of ET 2 by the Nerd would drive his fans to buy the game.
The Nerd (James Rolfe) and Cooper Folly (Jeremy Suarez) are working on a video game review. The Nerd has become disheartened over the years, as his fans continue to buy and play the games he reviews and warns people to stay away from. On top of this, the Nerd must promote and sell bad video games as part of his job at GameCops. When he discovers marketing for ET 2, his fans encourage him to review E.T., something he has stood against for years because the game scarred him as a child. After some personal thought, the Nerd decides to go to Alamogordo to debunk the conspiracy surrounding the buried cartridges. He is accompanied by Cooper and Mandi, and the trip is completely funded by Cockburn Industries.
While filming their expedition, Cooper reveals that he believes in a super-being known as Death Mwauthzyx, who has the power to destroy all existence. Sergeant McButter (Helena Barrett) and the legless General Dark Onward (Stephen Mendel), thinking the trio is looking for extraterrestrials, attempt to capture them. Onward accidentally blows his right arm off with a grenade, giving the trio enough time to escape.
The Nerd, Cooper and Mandi search for the creator of ET, Howard Scott Warshaw, for answers. They instead stumble across the home of Dr. Zandor (Time Winters), who tells them that ET's level design is an exact map of Area 51. Dr. Zandor gave the code to Warshaw to help him meet the five-week deadline Atari set for ET's completion, and to exact revenge on the government for kidnapping and holding hostage an alien he was attempting to free. The government ordered the burial of the cartridges, while Zandor escaped with the metallic material Area 51 was researching at the time in an attempt to reassemble the alien's spaceship, replacing it with tin foil. Mandi is captured by McButter while wandering outside of the house. The Nerd and Cooper, believing she is a double agent, do not go after her.
Going back to the Alamogordo site, the Nerd and Cooper discover a large crowd of fans and the head of Cockburn Industries promoting the release of ET 2 with the promise of digging out a copy of the original ET from the site. The Nerd tells his fans there are no cartridges buried there, but Warshaw himself appears and tells fans the opposite. Annoyed, the Nerd breaks into Area 51 disguised as an alien. He is captured, and General Onward attempts to force him to play E.T.. Onward launches a missile at Mount Fuji, the basis for the Atari logo, and while leaving the room, gets his left arm cut off in the door. During the launch countdown, an alien resembling the one in E.T. grabs the Nerd and pulls him to safety.
The destruction of Mount Fuji releases Death Mwauthzyx, who was trapped inside the mountain. Meanwhile, Mandi keeps McButter away from the Nerd and Cooper's location, eventually leading them to a confrontation on the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.
The Nerd and alien escape in a fighter jet similar to one in the NES Top Gun video game, while the alien reveals Death Mwauthzyx can destroy all existence by turning the satellite dish on his head. Cooper is captured by Death Mwauthzyx and brought to Las Vegas, where Mandi knocks McButter off the Eiffel Tower to her death. Mandi is also captured by Death Mwauthzyx. The Nerd and Alien crash-land at the Alamogordo site, where a captured Dr. Zandor shouts to them that he hid the alien's spaceship metal inside the millions of E.T. game cartridges. Alien summons every single copy of the game to form the spaceship. The Nerd and Alien leave for Las Vegas to stop Death Mwauthzyx. The armless General Onward is killed when attempting to stop them.
The Nerd fires a laser at Death Mwauthzyx's satellite dish, causing Death Mwauthzyx to disappear forever. They return to the Alamogordo site and reunite with Dr. Zandor and the Nerd's fans. Cooper and Mandi share a kiss, while the Nerd finally reviews E.T. for his fans before Alien leaves for good. Everyone, including Mandi, throw the copies of the sequel into the landfill.

Tags: violence

Review:
On the one hand, I don't really care for James Rolfe's more recent AVGN episodes, but on the other hand, the script for this movie was supposedly written several years ago, during a time when his episodes were in my opinion better.
So I decided to watch it, with a completely open mind, out of curiosity's sake more than from being a die-hard fan.It was a noble effort and a great practical and technical achievement, and I respect James as a filmmaker and artist for all the work he put into it, but objectively speaking it just isn't that great of a movie.
Having been a fan of the AVGN and James Rolfe's films/reviews since  2006, I've pretty much grown up with the nerd.
And that's the biggest shame; I'd overlook the fact that this is a misguided format for AVGN : The Movie...if the resulting product had generated some decent laughs.The plot is that a Games Company have developed a sequel to the infamous ET (or "Eee Tee" as it is here) and want the Nerd to review it, thus publicising it for them.
James Rolfe and Kevin Finn had 10 times that amount and made Angry Video Game Nerd : The Movie..
James Rolfe took all his frustrations, funny and odd moments one experiences while playing those old, retro games and created a series that not only old school gamers enjoy, but also the younger generations, because it introduces them, in a humorous way, how gaming used to be.
What is kinda a saving grace for a movie like "The Wizard" is completely absent here.It goes for the so-bad-its-good-humor, but being that the movie is so self-aware about it, it always ends up feeling forced like it deliberately lets something shitty happen and then just expects you to laugh it up.
As much as I love James Rolfe and his reviews, and with how long I've been watching his stuff, his first film suffered from some serious problems.My first issue with it was how the first half hour of the film was all of the self-puffery.
He's the ANGRY Video Game Nerd, not the narcissistic.It is James' character, so he's allowed to create it any way he wants, but it really rubbed me the wrong way.
I don't know if his dialogue was written that way on purpose, but every time he opened his mouth, I wanted to punch it repeatedly.Overall, I love AVGN reviews...
I know it is not a big production movie and I really enjoy that it knows it is a low budget film and makes fun of it, but it is just boring.
I'm pretty sure you don't need a big budget to write a better script and that's the main problem with this movie.The plot is fine, even if it is dumb, it's practically a goldmine for many good jokes.
What should have been a feature length episode of the Angry Video Game Nerd ended up being James Rolfe wearing the nerd costume and stroking his own ego.
Its like avgn always goes down one of two 2 roads; One of well written, ironic and funny reviews, pointing out the actual flaws of the game, which resonates with fans like me, who actually played those games he is reviewing and another one that i honestly don't know who it appeals to, i guess kids, but most people who actually knows what he is talking about are like 26 to 30 years old now.
Its quite painful for me to be bashing this movie and criticizing the work of this great guy who is a true hero in my eyes, but it could have been better because the nerd has great funny episodes that i can still rewatch and enjoy.
The third act is composed mostly of these.This is a film that tries to do a lot, but seems to put little effort into any element and so we're left with a mismatched, sort-of demo reel of what the writer directors would like to accomplish: character comedy, surrealism, romance, ensemble work, effects, a zombie sequence which seems especially tacked-on, creature effects, spoof, fight scenes, road movie elements -- but all of them sub-par and thrown into one pot.
Watching the puppet scenes, hearing the bad dubbing on its static lips, it's very difficult to consider this a 'movie' in a real sense.It feels rushed throughout - especially in the script, oddly enough considering how much time was available before filming.
The characters are clichéd (a running joke focuses on an overbearing mother phoning her son and clucking orders at him - at the risk of sounding cruel-- get out of bed, Joooohn, get out of bed!).Occasionally the movie will break the fourth wall to comment on its reliance of cliché (for example the lengthy 'girl fight' between two attractive actresses with no real purpose), but pointing out a bad (slightly misogynist?) story-thread hardly justifies boring us with it for so long in the first place.
He is far too often the straight man in his own movie.As a fan of Rolfe's I hope he learns from this step rather than just enjoying the trappings of having released a film and played in theaters.
I guess I should start off my saying that I've been a big fan of AVGN for at least 5 or 6 years now, so this review may be subconsciously biased for or against due to this fact.As a fan of the web series, I just didn't feel like the movie lived up to the episodes.
I also feel that a lot more care could have been taken in the actual writing, and many scenes should not have made the cut for one reason or another, where they could have filled the extra time from the cuts with scenes that filled the plot holes.I realize that this was an ambitious project with a low budget, but I feel that they probably tried to over extend, spending too much of the budget on things that were either unnecessary or could have been cheesed down slightly, and they cheesed out too much on things that could have had a bit more of the budget put into them.I'm giving it a 4/10 mostly just for effort, but it's actually just a pretty bad film and would only get a 4 or higher from a fan, as it has no redeeming qualities to anyone not familiar with AVGN..
I like the Angry Video Game Nerd a lot, his reviews are very funny.
Don't get me wrong, it's not what most people would consider a good film, but I think I should offer an explanation of why it turned out the way it did.First, this is more of a Cinemassacre feature than an Angry Video Game Nerd feature and you will be more inclined to like it if you have spent your time watching the endless movie reviews on the Cinemassacre website.
James is a fan of what a lot of people would describe as trash and a lot of this film contains schlock content - dumb characters, corny jokes and silly special effects.
James showed his popularity in the movie for the purposes of a joke, being that the fictional public assumed that the Nerd videos are for comedy/fun (which obviously they are), which dismayed the fictional Nerd character who simply hated the games - he is famous for the wrong reason.
I am shocked at how bad this movie really is i will be honest i was not expecting a masterpiece but this is nearly unwatchable and embarrassing i actually found myself turning it off at some points because the acting and jokes were so bad I am a huge fan love your site nerd videos and movie reviews i see you talk about all the classic movies with such passion and a great eye but yet you produce this I am shocked and feel like i have been robbed of my money if you are reading this do not waste your time this will not satisfy you in anyway just seems like a rushed cash in plot holes all over the place etc.such a shame.Please go back to old style nerd videos that could of saved this movie in some way i hope we get a video on cinemassicre to discuss how misled the fans are made feel..
Whereas other low budget films like "Tokyo Gore Police", "Vampire Girl VS Frankenstien Girl", "Machine Girl", "Bad Taste" and the original "Evil Dead" were very low budget, they are memorable because of how extreme and screwed up they were.They have moments that would have you talk to your friends about; "Oh there's a moment where this gruesome scene happens" and so on.AVGN The Movie has nothing screwed up or extreme about it.It doesn't have any exciting scenes that you're dying to tell your friends.It is cool that James has finally made his first feature film.
But sadly I know who the Nerd is (I like his previews work) and I know that this movie was funded by his fans...
The plot is build around the idea how the entire internet is crazy about the Nerd to the point companies want to create bad game deliberately so he can review them (plus some alien/military conspiracy mix with evil god I honestly found half-backed at best).
I thought at first it was just to establish the fact that the Nerd has a following, but after several minutes of such nonsense it becomes clear that James Rolfe actually believes that he is as famous as he portrays himself in the film.The second biggest flaw in this film is the token black sidekick that was added for no apparent reason other than to have a person of color in the movie.
Honestly, some of his reviews look better than this film.I guess that overall the movie just plays out like a really long, unfunny video review skit and somehow manages to be even less humorous than the youtube material it's based on.
Cooper spends the first half of the movie whining and nagging non-stop, asking the Nerd to review the game, and when the project starts being difficult he spends the second half of the movie whining that he wants to go home and you gotta drag him along with you for 45 more effing minutes.Just leave him on the side of the road and call the two guys we really wanted to see : Mike Matei and Kyle Justin, the two real sidekicks of the nerd.No one gives a rats ass about cooper, why alienate your fans by planting a completely useless and unknown whiny character in the movie when you had the two most natural sidekicks right in your face the whole time?WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?I can't bring myself to understand why Kyle and Motherlover Mike were not the two secondary characters of this movie.
You're an AVGN fan expecting all these great funny guys and ideas to climax in a movie and you get none of them.
You could literally edit him out and nothing would change.As a fan, the movie is just alienating to watch, and the bits and pieces of nerd material that the fans will enjoy mostly amount to jokes that we already enjoyed frigging 5-10 years ago in the nerd videos.You spent so much time writing a whole new character that has nothing to do with the nerd but didn't bother writing new nerd jokes?This exact story would've been HILARIOUS with Mike and Kyle as sidekicks, now it's just sad to watch.
However, I feel like the movie didn't deliver on the AVGN character.
He should be a regular nerd who likes to play video games and watch monster movies.
Acknowledging his fans in the movie felt like he was sucking his own dick and didn't add anything interesting / relevant to the plot that couldn't be explained in a better way.3 - AVGN should have been working at the last video rental store in America, which is facing closure as a result of becoming obsolete / poor business.
In the end AVGN would have to reconcile the fact that a lot of 80s culture is forgottenbecause it is pretty silly in hindsight.4 - Instead of having a big company / military get involved, the silly action scenes with poor visual effects could have simply been AVGN's day dreams / fantasy sequences...(since he lives and breathes video games he imagines himself as a hero but in reality he is just a regular nerd).
He could have at least slightly changed it, like "jumping into the ocean and trying to avoid salt" instead of the thunderstorm line once again.I could easily go on, but I have the rest of my life to get on with.The fact is that the Nerd we get here, he's basically the same one we've had since at least Schwarzenegger Games: for too many years now, it's just been the same "Emperor's New Clothes" of AVGN putting out stuff that's markedly inferior to his stuff from last decade, but everyone continues to marvel and wonder at it, as if it's anywhere as good (or anywhere as natural) as the stuff he did back around 2006- 2007 or so (or even as good as 2008/2009/2010 or so).There were some okay elements in the film; some special effects were alright, for example...although by the same token the "argument" that "it's supposed to look cheesy and amateurish" is the most colossal copout in filmmaking history, when it comes to quality.
Needless to say I'm a huge AVGN fan.Without getting in to too much detail (cause a lot of the reviews have said what I wanna say) all I really have to say is this....if you really like this movie as much as some of you guys say you do....I can't help but think/KNOW that you're either really young or a huge fanboy (or maybe you saw one of the screenings and caught the AVGN fever with everyone there)....This is coming from someone who is really very much into the AVGN.
There are a handful of good parts that get a laugh.Most of the movie's flow is forced and it's clumsy.I will say that there are some interesting ideas like how they don't follow what you think will happen but it's still has a lot of plot holes.He has also worked on this movie for a long time and this was what he finally came up with?
Some of the Nerd's (James Rolfe) reviews are great classics like Bugs Bunny and Batman for old video game consoles.
Any fan of the Nerd knows that the entire episode shows the video game review is meant to be the main element.
Since then, I feel like I've grown up with James, and have always loved his nostalgic trips "back to the past." In thinking about reviewing a beloved web-series turned feature film, I feel it is important to state why I love the source material: The Angry Video Game Nerd webseries.
That said, The Angry Video Game Nerd movie encompasses none of the reasons I have loved the web-series for so long.
(SPOILERS)The movie starts with the clever premise of the Angry Nerd/James Rolfe character slowly learning that the Internet videos he makes intended to warn his audience about the horrors of bad games have had the opposite effect- his fans are now more interested in playing these games!
The movie abandons the reasons why the web-series worked- it has very little to do with video games or nostalgia, and you almost feel as though the only reason it features the Nerd is to trick the viewer into watching it in the first place.The movie is FAR too long and takes a lot of its sensibilities from Troma.
-- I waned to think this film was OK; I even told a VERY skeptical friend that it would "take a lot for me to think it wasn't AT LEAST 'okay'" Well, that is exactly what they did- The Angry Video Game Nerd movie is aggressively bad, intelligence insulting, and a waste of time..
The ending is complete trash, the nerd chick who is supposed to be the love interest in the film suddenly starts making out with Cooper, the token black sidekick, and the nerd reviews E.T. finally and decides it's actually a challenging and fun game.
I hope James retires the nerd after this, I don't even feel like seeing another episode now, the movie killed the show for me.
But like a lot of the reviewers here, I was a fan of AVGN since 2006 or so, when the first game reviews started reaching a larger audience (I was watching when he called himself "The Angry Nintendo Nerd").
For a while I'd check back for new episodes every so often, but it became clear that it was just going to be James and Mike playing games out of character indefinitely, with the sporadic and even hokier AVGN review thrown in here and there.
James rolfe really needs to sit on his own and come up with the ideas himself and find what truly made the original episodes so raw and great.I enjoyed the film, but my expectations were let down massively, it's not a film I am eager to watch a second time.
I just saw Angry Video Game Movie and as a long time fan, I have to say that it was underwhelming.
So much so that it ruined the movie.Only thing that could have saved it in a way if he (James, as the Nerd perhaps) would have reviewed it and given it both thumbs down.
I have enjoyed James Rolf's work for many years but you don't need to know about the nerd to watch this film.
For anyone who is an AVGN fan, I would recommend seeing it if you are interested in James Rolfe's work, and you, like me, waited a long time to see this movie.