Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie (2014)

The AVGN must overcome his phobia of the worst video game in the world to save his fans.

Directors:

Kevin Finn, James Rolfe

Writers:

Kevin Finn, James Rolfe

Stars:

James Rolfe, Jeremy Suarez, Sarah Glendening

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Rolfe	...	The Angry Video Game Nerd
Jeremy Suarez	...	Cooper
Sarah Glendening	...	Mandi
Bobby Reed	...	Bernie Cockburn
Stephen Mendel	...	General Dark Onward
Helena Barrett	...	McButter
Time Winters	...	Dr. Louis Zandor
Eddie Pepitone	...	Mr. Swann
Jake Johnson	...	Young Fan
Andre Meadows	...	Andre Meadows
Gustaf Lingmark	...	Bartender
Jessica Rockwell	...	Barcade Babe
Mara Hall	...	Cooper's Mom / Main Gambler
Isaac Sherman	...	Nerd (Age 3)
Noah Sherman	...	Nerd (Age 3)

Storyline

The AVGN must overcome his phobia of the worst video game in the world to save his fans.

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Plot Keywords:

crowdfunded | fall to death | wilhelm scream | laser gun | low budget film | 

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Taglines:

Worst game. Greatest game story.

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 July 2014 (USA)

Also Known As:

Злостный видеоигровой задрот: Кино

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$325,927 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cinemassacre Productions, Skinny Ugly Pilgrim, Evil Empire Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On April 26, 2014, the New Mexico desert where the E.T. Atari games were allegedly buried was excavated by Microsoft as part of a documentary. What was once an urban legend was declared fact. The event was open to the public, designer Howard Scott Warshaw and director Zak Penn attended the event as part of a documentary about the burial, as did local residents such as Armando Ortega, a city official who is reportedly one of the original kids that raided the dump in 1983. Only 728,000 cartridges were buried at the site, and remnants of other Atari games were discovered in the early hours of the excavation, as reported by Microsoft's Larry Hyrb. James Rolfe's inbox was flooded with messages about the dig, and he was quoted as saying, "I've known about the project for a while, and I've been in talks with them. Why I have never posted anything is because I respect the secrecy of any project as much as my own. I was going to be involved at the excavation, but of all dates, it landed on my daughter's one year birthday, which is my priority. As I've expected, they've unearthed the motherload of shit, but think about how many people threw that game in the garbage. I'm sure you can dig up any landfill and find at least a few copies of that game. I bet there's some in my backyard. But anyway, I guess everyone's expecting a response from me, or some kind of reaction. Well it's strangely hilarious. It's weird. The kind of thing where the planets align by some mysterious stroke of fate. When I first heard about the plans to dig up the games, I was beyond shocked. Imagine if you were making a movie about the search for Nessie, and then all of a sudden, somebody drains Loch Ness. What were the chances?"

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Goofs

At the Las Vegas casino, Mandi is seen playing a 'One Armed Bandit' fruit machine. A close up shot of the machine shows that she wins the 777 Jackpot but, when the camera angle changes to show her celebrating, the machine shows 3 random fruits, which is actually not a win at all.

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Quotes

The Angry Video Game Nerd: You ever see me play Top Gun? Not a pretty sight.

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Crazy Credits

The producers wish to thank all those who made this film possible and most importantly...you the fans!

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Alternate Versions

The end credit sequence, along with a scene of the Nerd being transported down from the spaceship, was re-edited, using real footage from the E.T. video game, into a standalone episode. In the movie, due to copyright claims, the game is called Eee Tee. All gameplay of games shown in the film is recreated animated graphics, made to resemble the original games. Actual gameplay for the E.T. game was recorded, and then given to the animators during post-production to recreate with slightly different graphics. In the Movie a sequel to Eee Tee, titled Eee Tee 2, makes an appearance and is comprised of 3D animated graphics, emulating the original video game.

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Connections

References Top Gun (1987)

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Soundtracks

Birds Before Nerds
Music by Bear McCreary

User Reviews

Not a Nerd movie, but a B-movie starring the Nerd

Well, it finally arrived, after years of waiting. Sadly for James, it turns out that many people didn't like his character's outing to the big screen. However, I can't help but thinking a lot of the disgruntlement is misplaced. 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. Bad / over the top acting and silly dialogue therefore isn't really the point for this type of film - it's a given. If you don't like this sort of thing, then you aren't going to like this movie, period.

The reality, though, is that people love the Nerd character first and foremost above Cinemassacre and sadly he does suffer mildly in the context of this movie. His dislike of E.T. is taken from an amusing irrational hatred into irrational behaviour and his insistence that he won't review the game is a card played a little too strongly. Still, I really don't think the criticisms that there are ego issues going on here are valid. The Nerd is an enormously popular character and people have flocked to cinemas nationwide across the states to support their hero. 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 think this has been wildly and widely misinterpreted as James stroking his own ego and I think that's unfair. It's driving to the plot point to the film.

The plot, of course, is ridiculous and silly. It's a fun concept but gets bogged down by being the film being too long, which makes the plot too slow. Things do get rather confusing towards the end as the Nerd's companions go off on their own mini-adventures but to no real consequence. People just want to see the Nerd. As for the ludicrous monster that appears towards the end, we are right back in Cinemassacre territory with plastic models and men in rubber suits - the ridiculousness is the point.

Regardless of the target audience, the film is at least partially a comedy and it does raise a few smirks. As the laughs are more frequent and punchier in the Nerd episodes, this has left a lot of people disappointed. What we all love is seeing the Nerd spit venom at "***** games", but he's not doing that here until the credits of the film (which is probably the most entertaining and interesting part). The various cameos and fan moments are kind tributes, but are mostly goofy and unnecessary.

I suppose I can summarise by saying that this is not the Nerd movie many of us were hoping for, but just a B-movie starring the Nerd. It was an ambitious project in which an amateur film-maker had the means to pay homage to the films he loved. Unfortunately this was at the expense of the character that the audience loved, which is what everyone really wanted to see. However, I have a huge amount of respect for the project as a whole. What James has achieved with his Nerd character is impressive and a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this movie. There's a lot of heart here and that context gives it a special charm. Standing it by itself though, against slicker and meaner films, it's an easy target for criticism. But to do so in the overly aggressive way that others have is to miss the point entirely.

That's what I think anyway.