Curator Watchlist
A slick, crowd-pleasing true-story thriller with a strong central performance and a playful sense of momentum, but it often simplifies the history into a glossy chase movie. If you want an entertaining Cold War business caper, it works; if you want a deeper film about the game’s creation or the Soviet system, it… Read more
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 1h 58m
Director: Jon S. Baird
Starring: Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva
In 1988, American video game salesman Henk Rogers discovers the video game Tetris. When he sets out to bring the game to the world, he enters a dangerous web of lies and corruption behind the Iron Curtain.
Jon S. Baird
Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva
A slick, crowd-pleasing true-story thriller with a strong central performance and a playful sense of momentum, but it often simplifies the history into a glossy chase movie. If you want an entertaining Cold War business caper, it works; if you want a deeper film about the game’s creation or the Soviet system, it feels thin.
Tetris turns a surprisingly knotty rights battle into a fast-moving Cold War thriller, and that’s both its biggest strength and its biggest compromise. It has the snap of a studio crowd-pleaser, with clean visual storytelling, propulsive pacing, and a lead performance that keeps the whole thing buoyant even when the plot gets absurdly convoluted.
The movie’s best idea is to treat intellectual property like a spy operation: contracts, licenses, and backroom deals become as suspenseful as any chase scene. That gives it a playful edge, but it also means the film often skims past the deeper human and political material in favor of momentum and accessibility.
As a piece of entertainment, it goes down easily. As a historical drama, it’s more efficient than revealing. The result is a polished, watchable caper that earns recommendation more for energy and charm than for insight.
Richard Lawson (3★) · 3528 likes
Taron and Mr. Tetris should have kissed
esther (1★) · 3227 likes
as someone who considers Tetris the game to be an achievement of human expression on par with the the sistine chapel or michaelangelo's david, any variety of film adaptation was going to have a high bar to clear for me. that this film chose to take Henk Rogers, the man who locked down the rights to sell Tetris, as its primary subject rather than the game's actual creator, Alexey Pajitnov, was another strike against it. the film is part of
megan (3.5★) · 2615 likes
Tetris collapsed the USSR?
Reece (3.5★) · 2572 likes
best use of “I Need a Hero” since Shrek 2‼️ (real review: this movie is Argo for video game nerds in the best way possible)
nathan (3★) · 1863 likes
the sexual chemistry taron had with both tetris and the tetris inventor
A similarly brisk true-story thriller that turns diplomacy, deception, and logistics into crowd-pleasing suspense.
Shares the appeal of watching a modern empire built through contracts, ambition, and legal maneuvering.
Another polished Cold War-era negotiation drama where paperwork and statecraft carry real tension.
For viewers drawn to a historical puzzle box about technology, secrecy, and institutional pressure.
A corporate origin story that makes a business deal feel like a high-stakes sports movie.
A legal-and-invention drama about ownership, attribution, and the cost of fighting for credit.
A sharp, accessible story about turning a product into a global phenomenon through aggressive dealmaking.
A smart, process-driven business drama about changing an old system through strategy and persistence.
If you liked the film’s explanation of complicated systems, this makes finance feel similarly kinetic and readable.
A lighter, clever caper about information, codes, and people outsmarting institutions.
A classic Cold War thriller with the same pleasure of technical detail and geopolitical tension.
For a more serious, procedural take on Cold War brinkmanship and pressure-cooker decision-making.
intellectual property, Cold War politics, business intrigue, 1980s nostalgia, corporate espionage, technology history, cross-border negotiation, based on true events
Cold War, business thriller, historical drama, 1980s, espionage, corporate intrigue, technology, true story, fast-paced, retro