The Movies

The Movies, a fun, exhilarating, extraordinary and original game, a great good game suitable for all ages.

It does not have a story, rather you are the one who has to create your own movie house and also make features, actors and scenes, although it has technical limitations (which are forgivable considering the era at which the game was released) you can play and enjoy it even in 2024.

For the gameplay it is really rich in content, as I wrote a while ago the game allows you to create scenes and edit them and make your own films, and after release there are reviews and film criticism as well.

For the soundtrack we have really good songs, catchy and you will want to hum them.

Really a great game to pass the time!

the major problem with this game is that it's not the great movie making game that it claims to be. the main goal is to become the richest studio in the world.

if you are an artistic film maker with a vision, this game is not for you're movie creating abilities. rather, you financial abillities. sure you can edit movie that already have scripts, but you can never create your own story.

you can however make a short with some movement, and sounds and dialoge, but if your thinking that you can make really cool, profound pictures, this game can't do it.

and another very real fact of the main stream is carried over to the game. the writers. in the game your writers mean nothing. all they do is sit in a little room and give you gold, and yet like the stars, you can not look at a writers mood, change there salary, or really have any other concers than writing.

It is one of the very few attempts where a game is about the movies industry. The game is very detailed, and it represents the whole movie making process very well. It is very accurate concerning the movies history and the technology used in your movies fits in the era you are. I really enjoyed the idea of a radio station broadcasting the news and giving you information about the movies industry.

However, it is not so simple, and it might take you some time to play the game without difficulties. You will have to take care of many things at the same time, such as movie making, lot maintenance, taking care of your stars etc. The competition also, during the award ceremonies is tough, and you'll have to be tolerant in order to achieve your goals.

There is also the choice of making your very own movie. In fact, you must chose carefully scenes that are relevant. You can not chose a standard plot and work on it, however, you can work on ready movies and improve them. You can also add soundtrack and other sounds, as well as subtitles. It is a good attempts that gives the player the chance to make his own movie, but if you think you can create something like "Lord of the Rings" or "Godfather", you'll be a bit disappointed.

To conclude, it is a great game that everyone should play, especially Sim game and movies lovers.

Yes you can make your own movies. Yes there are limitations. There are two main aspects of this game.

1. Making movies 2. Running a movie studio "The Sims" style

1. Making movies. This part of the game is the best in my opinion. You have total control over the movie making process. You pick your actors and customize their clothes, names, hairstyles, makeup, body type, facial hair, and much more. You then can begin creating your movie. You pick the sets (which range from a beach, city streets, alien planets, westerns, war movies) and then you can customize the sets in case you want to add a coat hanger in the room or a set of chairs. Then you chose from hundreds of scenes to put in your movie (some as small as a person looking to the left, some as big as a western cowboy shootout). you pick which actors you want to be in every scene. you can also change their clothes or look for every scene. there are romantic scenes, fight scenes, funny scenes... you get to chose. when you are finished, you then go to "post production" on your movie. you can add music to your movies (the game provides sample music and you can upload your own as well), you can cut scenes for length (in case a fight scene is lasting too long, you can edit the length of each scene. you can add in sound effects which the game provides. finally you can put your finished movie online or just export it to your computer in windows media viewer format to show your friends. you have 99% total control over the movie.

2. the studio. i don't use this part too much. you can chose to either build up your studio from the ground up... hiring actors, directors, building sets, trying to win awards in the game, budget your money, etc. for people like me who just want to make movies, there is an option where your studio is already built and you have tons of money and don't have to worry about your actor's mood swings (like in The Sims).

overall i give it a 9/10. i take only 1 point off because there is no blood (the game might report blood, but the only blood in the game is on a costume where the blood is splattered on the front)

Got this on Christmas day 2005 and the expansion pack, Stunts & Effects, six months later. This came out after years of delays and was well worth the wait. I like many others still play this game today and don't feel it has aged one bit.

Gameplay-wise it allows you to not just create movies (upon unlocking the custom script-writing office) but you can also take control of actors mood-swings, wages, drinking and food problems in the campaign mode. However you can tweak these options in sandbox mode if you want to just go straight into making movies. A great touch is that every once in a while the game hosts it's own Oscars ceremony (campaign mode only). The only downside is that the developer's website, The Movies Online, is now kaput because of not enough users. Netherless the game is still excellent in single player mode. Escpecially good as it's at a cheap price with it's Stunts & Effects pack. I highly recommend it.