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Parents' Guide to

The Games Maker

By Brian Costello, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Board game-themed fantasy has bullying, violence.

Movie NR 2014 90 minutes
The Games Maker Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (2 ):

With its stylized set designs and creative use of color to set mood, THE GAMES MAKER has some enjoyable aspects. However, the movie is marred by an unwieldy plot filled with too many backstories, elements that feel forced (the "invisible girl" whose sole reason for existence seems to be to give the movie a female counterpart), and parts that feel a little too similar to a certain enormously popular book and movie franchise in which kids attend an unusual private school.

With all those factors, by the time young Ivan meets his archrival in board game creation, all the quirkiness cannot overcome the sense of the movie trying too hard. It doesn't make the movie awful, but it also doesn't make it as good as it might have been had there been some tightening in the overall story arc. And that's something the Technicolor of the good places contrasted with the dreary grays of the bad places cannot cover up.

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