Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Lightdeossk Captivating movie !

locovel My earliest memory was Pac-Man in the video arcades. So, even though the 2600 was innovative, true video game addicts knew how bad EVERY game was for the 2600. It wasn't until the 5200 that the console really improved: Pac-Man looked like Pac-Man/Centipede looked identical to the arcade game AND had a track ball accessory to improve it! I never played E.T. and so I don't care to comment on it. I don't understand why they focused so much on this topic without talking about so many other facets of Atari. How did they go down with the success of arcade games and the 5200? Remember, this was the first home console that not only resembled the actual arcade games but had a PAUSE as well! The best feature ever! Plus, it's hard to have empathy for a designer that had so much ego that it blinded the reality of coming out with a hit game, in a fraction of the time it took previously, that would be of any quality. I have to give it a low rating because it spent too much time on this excavation.

Tim Little I should say in opening, that the whole Atari games console thing passed me by.This is, on the surface, the story of how a nostalgic geek had a chunk of desert dug up to hunt for games cartridges that were dumped back in the early 80s.As the film develops it becomes more than that, and delves into the story of how a household name company and an intrinsic part of many peoples childhood, crashed spectacularly.Many of the individuals at the heart of the success and failure of the games' development, come together to tell their part in the story and to be present at the enjoyable final conclusion.Whilst seemingly aware of the geekieness of the subject matter, the story is informative and told with obvious affection, nostalgia and an ample share of humour. All in all, an entertaining piece of film-making.

Michael_Elliott Atari: Game Over (2014)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Entertaining documentary from director Zac Penn about the fall of Atari and how many people blamed the disaster sales of the video game E.T.. The documentary talks about the rise of Atari and of course it's fall from grace as well as goes into details about the making of the video game based on the Steven Spielberg movie. We also get current footage of them digging up a landfill where legend has it contains millions of copies of the game that didn't sell.The term video game nerd is used several times throughout this documentary but you certainly don't have to be one in order to enjoy this film, which is without question a fun little gem that makes you realize how the truth is often very far from the legend. We're told about the history of this video and we get interviews with video game experts as well as the man who designed the game. They discuss what kind of pressure was on for it to be released by Christmas and why something just went wrong along the way.If you're a fan of video games or familiar with the legend of the E.T. game then you're really going to love what's offered here but I think those unfamiliar with the legend will probably enjoy it even more because it's just fascinating to think that one video game brought down a billion dollar industry. Of course, the truth is eventually revealed. Video nerd or not, this is a very entertaining documentary that's worth watching.

Foxbarking I really didn't know what to expect from this film. I had heard about the search for the Atari games buried in a landfill and never gave it much mind after that. Curious as to what happened, I decided to give this movie a look when it came on Netflix.This documentary is the strangest piece of propaganda I have ever seen. It tries to salvage the reputation of ET The Extra Terrestrial, largely regarded as one of, if not the worst video game of all time. In doing so, it skews factual information and presents minority opinions in an attempt to give this a new reputation.I grew up in the 1980's and I was very excited when I got ET for my Atari 2600. Being 8 years old, I had seen the movie and loved it and I was so into video games that it seemed like an unbeatable idea. However, after several hours of pain and agony, I gave up on ET. I would come back to it several times later in life, never with any improvement.This movie skews information to exonerate ET from its role in Atari's "death." When the games are found in the landfill, the narrator remarks that only 10 percent of the games were ET. He then lists other popular games that were found, such as Defender and Centipede. Conveniently, however, the percentages found for any of the other games are not mentioned. They then present this as proof that ET didn't kill Atari. You then get about three people talking about how great the game is, including one guy who you don't know and never will remarking how he'd rather play ET than Call of Duty. Well, so would I and I don't like either game.The narrator never makes the obvious point that the reason there were more games than ET in the landfill is because the landfill was filled around the end of Atari, Inc's existence. Atari got rid of a lot of unsold games and ET represented a larger portion than any other game.So, if you want to get an actual unbiased account about this, this movie will not provide that. It's clear purpose is to try to make this horrid video game look good.