Which film was a better superhero movie, The Lion Actually or Eternal Sunshine of the Galaxy? Make your choice and hope your teammates agree!
What Is Not That Movie!?
Not That Movie! is a cooperative party game for 2 to 7 players, ages 8 and up, and takes about 20 minutes to play. It retails for $24.99 and there are a few online stores that carry it, but you may also be able to request it at your local game store if they don’t stock it regularly. The game uses titles from all sorts of movies, not all of which are kid-friendly, but the game itself is fine for kids. (You don’t need to have seen all the movies to play the game, either—it’s not a trivia game.) The game uses some variant rules for 2 players; I recommend playing with at least 3 players for the best experience.
Not That Movie! was designed by Silvano Sorrentino and published by DV Games, with art by Simone Fucchi and Daniele Solfrini.
Not That Movie! Components
Here’s what comes in the box:
- Game board
- 80 Title cards
- 42 Review cards
- 7 Dials
- 7 “Not!” tokens
The game board is pretty small, an I-shaped board that unfolds to reveal the game’s title and has room for 5 cards on each side. The whole game has a ’90s aesthetic that is cute but a bit misleading, as there are some movie titles as recent as last year (like Everything Everywhere All at Once).
Each title card takes a movie title and splits it so that the first half of the title is on the bottom of the card, and the second half of the title is on the top. When two cards are lined up vertically, it creates a mash-up title—and these new titles line up with the 8 number labels on the game board. Since the cards are double-sided, that gives you 160 titles to play around with!
The review cards are small and feature silly “reviews,” a positive review on one side and a negative review on the other, often with usernames that are part of the joke. The bolded terms in the review tend to be the “objective” part of statement, like whether a movie is in black and white or features time travel, but the rest is the reviewer’s subjective opinion of it.
The dials are simple cardboard dials in various colors, each with an image of a TV remote and a notch to reveal a number from 1 to 8. My only complaint about the components in this game is that the dials are a bit loose and spin too easily, so that if you’re not careful you can easily turn to a different number when picking it up. Since you assemble the dials when you first open up the game, I’d recommend adding a small piece of paper or some O-ring stickers between the two layers of cardboard to help with the slipping.
The “Not!” tokens are cardboard tokens with illustrations on them: a slice of pizza, a cat, a scarf. Some of them seem movie-themed and some are kind of random. Each one has a color illustration on one side, and a black-and-white version on the other.
The rules are just on a single folded sheet since it’s a fairly simple game, and the back of the sheet has a section where you can record your scores (per round, and then the total for the game). That was an odd touch—there’s only room for 12 scores on this, and you’re writing directly on the back of the rules. I haven’t been using the chart myself.
How to Play Not That Movie!
You can download a copy of the rulebook here.
The Goal
The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible over five rounds by getting on the same wavelength as the other players.
Setup
Give each player a dial, place the board in the center of the play area, and shuffle the two decks of cards individually. Give the stack of “Not!” tokens to the player who most recently saw a movie.
Gameplay
At the beginning of each round, fill the board with 10 title cards, and then place two review cards at the bottom (one positive, one negative). Read the reviews aloud. (For good measure, read the fractured movie titles aloud as well—but try not to make too many comments about the films just yet.)
Each player secretly chooses the one movie title that they think best fits both reviews, and turns their dial to that number. Remember, you’re hoping to choose the same answer as the other players. Place your dials face-down (carefully, so they don’t spin to a different number).
In turn order, starting with the player with the stack of tokens, each player eliminates a title that they think nobody selected: “not that movie!” Place the token on the title you’re eliminating, and pass the tokens to the next player. If anyone chose that title, they reveal their dial and the token is flipped over to the black-and-white side.
Play continues until there are two incorrect guesses, or until all 7 tokens have been played. The group scores 1 point for each correct answer, plus a bonus point if all 7 guesses were correct (i.e., everyone chose the same movie title for their answer).
Game End
The game ends after five rounds. Total up your score and compare it to the chart on the rulesheet, which will rate your performance between a flop and an Academy Award. (Generally, the fewer players you have, the more points you need because it is more challenging!)
Two-Player Rules
For a two-player game, each player gets two dials and will choose two different titles each round. You use 6 of the “Not!” tokens—if all 6 are placed correctly, you score 2 bonus points. Otherwise the game remains the same.
Not That Movie! is a 2023 Game of the Year Finalist!
Why You Should Play Not That Movie!
Not That Movie! made its debut at Essen SPIEL last fall and was released in the US shortly after, but for whatever reason it’s still been pretty hard to find. I actually received my review copy just in time for Thanksgiving and fell in love with it, but had been waiting to post a review for when it looked like it was actually available, but I still haven’t seen it show up in most of the major online game retailers I’m familiar with, nor on the shelves in my local game stores. However, if you’ve got a local game store, chances are very good that they can order a copy for you if they don’t have it in stock because it’s carried by one of the big US distributors.
Part of the appeal of the game is the very simple gimmick of splitting movie titles in half and mixing them up. While you do get some funny grammatical constructions from time to time (The French of the Condor), for the most part it just works really well and just reading the 8 mash-up titles every round is sure to cause some laughs as everyone tries to imagine what sort of movies they are. (Because of the nature of movie titles, it’s possible you may end up with combinations that sound like they could be adult films, but that’s generally a function of the group you’re playing with and it’ll go over the heads of the younger kids.) Certainly if you’re familiar with the original titles, that can influence your impressions of the new titles, but the nice thing about this game is that you really don’t need to know anything at all about the actual films—all you need is an imagination about what’s on the board.
The mini reviews are brief and provide a mix of facts about the film and some subjective opinions. “Handsome archaeologist: CHECK! Thrilling adventures. CHECK! What else could you ask for?” Or “I’m not convinced about the idea of using puppets instead of actors to tell this story.” Again, the magic comes in the random combinations of the two reviews. Was it a light-hearted B-movie that took ten years to make? A silent film about giant robots? Maybe a heist movie that started as a book, then became a game, and then a TV series?
A perfect score is only possible if everyone at the table secretly chooses the same title—if you’re all in sync, you’ll be able to place all of the “Not!” tokens and eliminate everything else and score that bonus point. However, chances are that not everyone thinks the same way, so when it’s your turn, you want to go for whatever you think is most obviously wrong, so that the team can score as many points as possible before reaching two errors. Afterward, it’s fun to see what everyone picked, and there are always conversations about why players made their decisions. I mean, it’s obvious that 500 Days in 60 Seconds is a time travel film; why would you think it was a musical?
One thing I’ve really enjoyed about Not That Movie! is that it works well with a broad range of players: it’s one that I can play with my 9-year-old, my teenagers, and my adult gaming group all together and we can all have fun with it. It can work as a “get to know you” sort of game among strangers and new friends because you start seeing how people think, and it can really shine when playing with people you know well because you can try to predict what the other players are going to pick.
I also like that it’s a cooperative party game—everyone is on the same team, so it’s a nice one to have when you have a mix of experience levels. This is one that you can teach as you go, and the ultimate score is less important than the time spent playing. As far as I’m concerned, this one deserves an Academy Award … or at least our GeekDad seal of approval!
For more information, visit the DV Games website.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
