5 Best Video Game Movies, Ranked by IMDb: From Super Mario Bros. to Hidden Gems

With a new Mario movie — yep, 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' — said to be dropping this month and aiming to push the bar higher again, it feels like a good time to look at the game-to-screen wins that got us here. The Super Mario Bros. Movie did a lot to rehab the genre’s reputation, which used to be mostly punchlines with a few outliers worth defending. The five best video game movies ( per IMDb ), and why they work 5) Mortal Kombat (1995) — IMDb: 5.8 One of the first that actually played. Director Paul Anderson treated it like a straight-up martial arts flick, which was the smart call, and it still represents the games better than the 2021 reboot. The setup: the thunder god Raiden (Christopher Lambert) corrals three fighters — Liu Kang (Robin Shou), Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby), and Sonya Blade ( Bridgette Wilson) — into a do-or-die tournament run by the soul-stealing baddie Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa). If they can’t beat Shang or his four-armed champ Goro, Earth gets invaded by Outworld. Streaming on HBO Max. 4) Uncharted (2022) — IMDb: 6.3 Yes, it lifts several set pieces straight from the games. And yes, Tom Holland heard the 'too young for Nathan Drake' complaints. But he holds his own, especially playing off Mark Wahlberg as Victor 'Sully' Sullivan. Think of it as an alternate origin story: Nate and Sully team up for the first time and race ruthless heir Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas) to a hidden treasure. Moncada is happy to make them disappear if they get in his way. Streaming on Hulu. 3) Pokemon Detective Pikachu (2019) — IMDb: 6.5 Still one of the cleanest visual translations of a game world to live-action /CGI. Ryme City bans capturing and battling, so humans and Pokemon actually coexist — until they don’t. Justice Smith plays Tim Goodman, who arrives looking for his missing father, Detective Harry Goodman, and runs into Harry’s partner: a memory-wiped Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds ) who swears Harry is alive. Their case peels back a plan that would flip Ryme City’s fragile peace on its head. Available to rent or buy on Prime Video. 2) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2024) — IMDb: 6.9 After two movies that yanked Sonic (Ben Schwartz), Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey), and Knuckles (Idris Elba) into our world, this one finally locks in the game vibe. Keanu Reeves voices Shadow — faster than Sonic, tougher than Knuckles — and for once Team Sonic is outmatched. So Sonic does the unthinkable: he partners with old nemesis Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey ) to take on Shadow and Robotnik’s ally, Robotnik’s own grandfather, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey). Streaming on Paramount+. 1) The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) — IMDb: 7.0 The 1993 live-action misfire kept Nintendo out of Hollywood for about 30 years. The comeback more than made up for it. Illumination nails the Mushroom Kingdom and the classic character designs, then keeps it simple: Brooklyn plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt ) and Luigi (Charlie Day) get sucked into another world, Bowser (Jack Black ) snatches Luigi and eyes the Mushroom Kingdom, and Mario teams with Princess Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy), Toad (Keegan-Michael Key), and Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen) to shut him down. Massive box office hit, with a sequel already positioned to meet or beat it. Streaming on Peacock. Why this list now If the new Mario outing really does drop this month and delivers like the last one, it just cements what this lineup already shows: we finally have more than a couple of 'good for a video game movie' options. Some are faithful, some remix the formula, but they all actually entertain — which used to be rarer than it should have been.

5 Best Video Game Movies, Ranked by IMDb: From Super Mario Bros. to Hidden Gems

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