BoardGameGeek.com Review
Rob Bradley
April 2007
USA

Apples to Apples meets Movie Trivia in a dark alley....

Cineplexity is a light party game for movie buffs. Well, it really isn't for movie buffs, but for anybody that enjoys watching movies. I'd hate to call it a trivia game since that is not really the case. But it is dependant on your movie knowledge.

Components:
The premiere limited edition contains 504 cards and four card holders. The MSRP is $24.99, and at that, it is a good value. This is almost too good a value, as it is a limited release and future releases will be trimmed down to 300 cards. The cards are oversized and square cut. They are not coated but are shiny and heavy enough for the expected wear. Although it would have been nice to have rounded corners, the square cut cards are not an issue because you really never need to shuffle them. I'm not sure why they decided to go away from the standard cards like they use with Apples to Apples, as most cards have very few words on them. My guess would be they wanted the text on the cards to be as large as possible since all players should be able to read the cards.

Gameplay:
The gameplay is eerily reminiscent of Apples to Apples and I'm sure many will compare the two. But where Apples to Apples brings in a large amount of 'metagame' and the scoring is wholly dependant on the judges interpretation of the cards and how well they match; Cineplexity is more of a trivia game. The director draws two cards from the deck and reads them to the rest of the players. The first person to name a movie that fulfills both cards gets the first card played. The director decides if the movie fits both the cards. That card acts as a scoring marker, as soon as a player gains ten cards the game ends. Play continues by the tray getting passed to the next player who becomes the new director and then another card is drawn, the players then try to guess a movie that fulfills both the cards in play. The cards are of several categories like: "PROPS", "ACTORS", "THEME", "CRITIQUES", "SETTING", "GENRE" etc.. Example of a props card would be: CONTAINS FINE ART OR ANTIQUES". An example of a genre card would be: "COMEDY". An example of a setting card would be: "CHICAGO". Let's say that the cards COMEDY and CHICAGO were showing, appropriate answers could be Ferris Bueller's Day Off, or The Blues Brothers. After someone blurts out an answer, the director decides whether the movie fits. The example above is pretty cut and dried; but there are times when interpretation is required and the director needs to make a judgment call. During one game, the Critique card "TOO VIOLENT" cam up with the Genre card "REMAKE". War of the worlds was blurted out by a player and the director determined it wasn't "too violent". The point was awarded to the player who said Night of the living dead.

At first glance it may seem that these gray areas diminish the game, but it is in fact these moments that differentiate this game form any other trivia game that I've ever played. Both the fact that you can talk to the director and convince him of you point and the open ended-ness of the answers clearly shows that this isn't standard fare. I really enjoyed the unknown aspect of the game. There aren't any preset answers. It is all completely random cards with an inconceivable amount of possible combinations were there may be some combinations that have hundreds of right answers, and then you may draw two cards that don't have any right answers or at least not one anybody playing can remember. The game accounts for these situations. If no one can think of an acceptable answer, then a third card is drawn and the players can name a movie that fits any two of the three cards.

The only time were this open ended-ness is a draw back is if the director has not seen the movie. In this case, the other players can back-up or refute the claim of the player that offered the answer. If the player that gave the answer is the only player that has seen the movie, we dis-allowed the answer; but we were unsure how to play that situation.

If you have a film buff in your midst, the game is definitely skewed to that person, and that person will win more often that not. It is not a sure thing like most trivia games, but it is a fact. I thought of an optional rule that makes it a little more likely someone other than the film buff will win. Very simply, instead of passing the tray clockwise around the table after each round, the winner of a round becomes the next director. In that regard, the film buff, would be director more times than the other players, limiting the amount of times he would be able to win a round. The other benefit to this would be that it scales perfectly with how much better a player is compared to the other players.

Conclusion:
The game is a blast in the right situation. It is definitely best for movie buffs and can be a great way to end a night after you see a flick with your buddies. The first game I played was Friday night after six of us went to see Grindhouse. After the movie we sat around and drank some beer and played Cineplexity until 1am. It is a good social game where nobody cares who wins or loses and you just want to be with friends and talk about movies. I give it an 8/10. I would rank it right up there with Apples to Apples as a party game; but it may not have the same appeal to some. Apples to Apples could potentially appeal to anybody where Cineplexity has a narrower audience.

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