Tetris (5 Stars)

This is a film that I thought I wasn't going to see. Trailers were shown in my cinema last year, but then the release date came and the film itself wasn't shown. I did a little research, and I found out that it was being shown exclusively on the Apple TV streaming service. Oh no! That means at best a long delay before it'll be released on Blu-ray, at worst it'll never be released at all. After waiting ten months I've been getting impatient. Then today I found it listed on a dodgy website. I shan't tell you the site's address, because I don't support illegal downloads, except in the case of an emergency. Believe me, this was an emergency. I found it by googling, so you can probably find it too, if you must. I was happy to find that the picture is in perfect 1080p quality. What more could I wish for?

The film stars Taron Egerton, practically unrecognisable with a moustache, as the Dutch businessman Henk Rogers. He was the owner of Bullet-Proof Software, a computer game company based in Tokyo. In 1988 he discovered Tetris at the stand of a rival software company at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. He was so enthusiastic about the game that he fought to acquire the rights to sell it himself.

That's the story behind the film. Tetris was a game written in Russia after hours by an employee in a government-owned company called ELORG. Technically, the game belonged to ELORG. That's where it gets complicated. The American businessman Robert Stein claimed to have bought the rights for Tetris from ELORG, and he had sold them to Mirrorsoft, an English company owned by Robert Maxwell and his family. Henk found out that Robert Stein only had the rights for the PC version and had sold the rights to other versions illegally. I need to make notes the next time I watch the film. It's difficult to keep up with who actually owned what.

Henk has to travel around the world to get what he wants. His efforts are blocked by Russia's KGB, who object to Russian software being sold to a foreigner. Many other factors tie in, such as the bankruptcy of Robert Maxwell and the first release of Nintendo's Game Boy. It's an exciting film, with car chases, missiles and tanks. Taron Egerton admits that some parts have been over-dramatized, but overall it's a true story. And it's a great story! The film isn't a comedy, but I had to laugh at several scenes. Russian bureaucracy was so stupid in the 1980's. Is it any better today?

Before I watched the film I played an online version of Tetris. It's been years since I last played, and I'd forgotten how addictive it is. After an hour I was bleary eyed and needed to make an effort to watch the film.

Tetris (the film) is at the top of my to-buy list, if it ever gets a Blu-ray release. I don't know if I can wait that long, so I might return to the dodgy site or even take a seven day free trial of Apple TV, but there's no way I'll subscribe. Apple TV only has a small selection of films, compared with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney Plus.