Warning: the following rant includes low-level language and minor spoilers for a tres cliched new release action film.

k, so the other day I was watching the new film Next.
Now, firstly I’m gonna say that this was clearly made by the SFX people, because any scene that wasn’t action was horrible, cliched horrible’ness – the kinda stuff even an emo 12 y.o. from Baxter would think is crap. Think 24 x 1000.

However, the action scenes were totally awesome. Nic Cage uses his power of foresight (being able to see 2 mins into the future) to do some crazy cool stuff.. starting with escaping from casino security by hiding in their blind spots, to a cool variation on bullet-time.

As I’m watching all this cool action’ness – it didn’t take long to realise that they’re basically showing us a video game brought to life. Cage’s character is using his power to get continual do-overs, finding the path that works to achieve his goals. This was most hilarious in his scene trying to pick-up Jessica Biel.

But, this isn’t the first time I’ve noticed video-game elements being used in films.

Not surprisingly, the recent Doom adaptation had an awesome straight-up FPS scene:

More surprising was the Virtua Fighter themed fight scene in Crimson River. Failing having a clip to share, I shall explain: it begins with a guy on his Playstation, with the soundtrack to the game becoming perfectly matched to an RL fight, complete with “Round 2 – FIGHT!”‘s and all.

Instead, check out this crazy clip from City Hunter:

I was most surprised to see such elements on recently re-watching Groundhog Day. Viewing the film as a video-game fits so well though. Bill Murray’s trapped in an adventure game, and doesn’t realise it. Like most such games, he spends ages trying to work out exactly what the goal is. It’s only at the end, when he understands the rules and plays the perfect game that he’s finally free:

See what a wide and varied influence video-games are having on films. What others am I missing?