The Games Maker

2014 Argentine film

26 June 2014 (2014-06-26)

Running time

111 minutesCountriesArgentina
Canada
ItalyLanguageEnglishBudget$6 millionBox office$5.2 million^[1]

The Games Maker (Spanish: El inventor de juegos) is a 2014 Argentine-Canadian family adventure film co-written and directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini and starring David Mazouz, Joseph Fiennes, Megan Charpentier, Tom Cavanagh and Ed Asner.^[2]

Plot summary

Young Ivan Drago places first in a mail-in contest for board game inventors, only to be disappointed after receiving the grand prize of a temporary tattoo. However, he soon discovers his tattoo is permanent, prompting his father to reach out to Ivan's long-estranged grandfather. Soon after, Ivan's parents are lost in a balloon race, whereupon Ivan is placed in a strict school, where classmates and teachers alike constantly show their dislike for him. Ivan escapes the school to run away to his grandfather in Zyl, the games capital. Once there, Ivan learns that his tattoo matches a missing piece in the town jigsaw puzzle, and is a symbol of Morodian, the man who stole the puzzle piece and is responsible for Zyl's downfall as the greatest game-making town.

Ivan runs off to confront Morodian, who had been tracking Ivan his whole life, and was responsible for the disappearance of Ivan's parents. Morodian puts Ivan to work as his personal games maker, but Ivan escapes with the missing puzzle piece and his parents, who Morodian was keeping hostage. With Morodian vanquished, Ivan replaces the missing puzzle piece, his father is reunited with Ivan's grandfather, and Zyl is restored to its former glory.

Cast

David Mazouz as Ivan Drago
Joseph Fiennes as Morodian
Megan Charpentier as Anunciacion
Tom Cavanagh as Mr. Drago
Valentina Lodovini as Mrs. Drago
Ed Asner as Nicholas Drago
Robert Verlaque as Principal Possum
Alejandro Awada as Engineer Gabler
Vando Villamil [es] as Ramuz
Maiamar Abrodos [es] as Miss Blum

Reception

The Games Maker received mixed reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 40% approval rating based on 5 reviews, and an average rating score of 4.6/10.^[3]