Our favorite movies about playing video games

By Frank Paiva
Special to MSN Movies

According to 2008 research by the Entertainment Software Association, 65 percent of American households play video or computer games. The same study found that American gamers spent $277.4 billion in 2007 on games and consoles. The combined U.S. box office of every movie released in 2007 is $9.6 billion. That's a profit disparity even more bloated than the director's cut of "Watchmen."

So why aren't there more movies about playing video games?

There are two likely reasons.

First, despite fancy consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, which do just about everything except make dinner and vacuum the carpet, video games remain a rather solitary activity. It's just you, the screen, a bag of chips, and a conversation with preteens from Iowa half your age. The setup isn't exactly conducive to cinematic drama.

Second, gamers play all the time. They know what it's like. Why should they spend $12.50 to watch Ben Stiller play "Halo" in a crowded multiplex when they can do it at home for free?

Hoping to skip past both these obstacles is "Gamer," a new action thriller starring Gerard Butler. In the near future, humans will be able to control imprisoned criminals like video game characters, using them to live out their darkest fantasies. Butler plays an avatar struggling for his freedom. But don't worry about him too much. I mean, if he survived Katherine Heigl ...

Before you catch "Gamer," here are a dozen other movies about playing video games. While few of them are at the level of "Citizen Kane," they're all worth putting down the controller for a couple of hours.

(Lionsgate)