1UP

At Barrett University, Vivian "V" (Paris Berelc) and Sloane (Hari Nef) are two students attending the college on an esports scholarship playing for Barrett's team called the Betas. Following one too many casually sexist comments from the team's other members lead by team leader Dustin (Taylor Zakhar Perez), V and Sloane quit the team and start their own team the 8-Bits with Wheelchair bound influencer Jenna (Lolita Milena), eccentric oddball Lilly (Madison baines), and flatulent LARPing enthusiast Diane (D. J. Mausner). The group of misfits approach History of Video Games professor Parker (Ruby Rose) who had previously worked as a game designer before a glut of harassment and death threats force her to leave the industry out of fear for her son's life and while initially reluctant eventually is convinced to serve as the 8-Bits coach. Now with their scholarships and livelihoods on the line, the team must band together to overcome their own idiosyncrasies, win the intercollegiate esports tournament, and beat the Betas.

1up comes to us from director Kyle Newman and screenwriter Julia Yorks. Newman is no stranger to films tackling fan culture such as his 2009 film Fanboys, while Yorks is more known for her work in children's animated TV such as The Adventures of Puss n' Boots or Trolls: The Beat Goes On. With a charged premise like sexism in gaming and clear allusions to things like Gamergate, 1up seems like something that could've been a provocative satire of a recurring deep rooted problem we see in this community, unfortunately in execution it's a rehash of mid 2000s comedy tropes that have long since been run into the ground and only has fleeting moments of thematic or emotional resonance.

The movie is basically Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story only with Dodgeball replaced with esports gaming, but unlike Dodgeball which took an inherently pretty silly sport like Dodgeball and made the fandom around it part of the joke, 1up takes something that's very real with esports gaming but it presents it in a way that's very broad and glib like an ordinary lowbrow comedy but also talking real world ills in this fandom such as Swatting which is used as setup for a fart/poop joke. As a comedy the movie goes to the school of "loud=funny" so the cast is filled with a bunch of types who are given one note and they play that note at full volume so. Characters like Diane and Jenna are basically repackages of characters you see Rebel Wilson/Melissa McCarthy play or various eccentric weirdo characters like Steve the Pirate only the timing and interactions feel very off and force and become grating after a while. The first hour plays in this fashion but thankfully it does dial back the abrasiveness in the last third where it becomes tolerable if not "good" and I did get some chuckles from sight gags such as a scene in the game where Lilly plays a fire breathing chicken. Most of the characters don't really get a chance to stand out which is a shame as Paris Berelc has shown herself to be a capable actress in other things but has nothing to work with here. The one performance/character who works is Ruby Rose as Parker who's basically an amalgam of various female gaming figures who were forced out of the industry through organized harassment campaigns and she's the only character who gets any emotional resonance as a character and frankly her backstory would've made for a better movie and take on this subject matter.

1Up is given rich potential and squanders it in the most lowbrow and wasteful fashion it can. While it does address or try to address real world problems in the gaming community, the way it handles them in such a broad and glib fashion ends up working against its point rather than for it. If you want to learn more about this type of thing, you'd be much better informed simply reading an article about the real world events that actually inspired this movie. If you want to see a comedy about gamers, watch The Wizard (the characters in the movie even stop to do so), it's not "good" but it's enjoyable.

There are so many faults in this movie it is hard to find a place to start. Firstly the acting, characters, directing, and writing isn't good. Every scene in the movie had so many cringeworthy lines in it and all the characters are either hyperbolized stereotypes or just ultra diverse pandering. Then there is the competitive gaming aspect of it. The way that the team starts just isn't real. Collegiate teams have lots of scouting and tryouts to join the team. Also there are very few women who play games let alone play enough to climb the ladder to pro. You actually need to be good at the game and high ranked. You don't just decide you want to start a team and recruit random people and hold interviews. Also you don't compete in the "collegiate esport league". Also you don't just "train" by drinking and playing nintendo 64 games. Then there is the game part. This is a real game, but as the movie goes on the game gets twisted and is just used as plot armor and the scenes with the chicken burning everything down and the blood character just morphing around are just not real. Overall. The movie is clearly just a stunt made by people who know nothing about the gaming scene. If they wanted to make a movie about diversity or sexism they should have just done that instead of masquerading their intentions with this movie.

Just watched this and it was just awful. A lot of amateur actors, and a clinchen story. Save yourself the time and watch something else. This was just another woke-crap movie.

I saw it on prime video, and felt it had an adequate opening, but dropped it right after they finished the practice match when I felt physical pain at the logic they had for the team. Before they finished the match, I even sympathized with the main character, since I was a support main back in my league days, but the stereotyping was misplaced, teams can't really do the misogynistic roles, and no one who knows any better disregards a support player. Other problems, role doesn't equal team position or skill. If you want to watch something with females in a good role, watch "King's Avatar" and save yourself the pain.

I've never rated a movie less than 5/10... I can usually find some light to bring it up a tad...

This? I'd give it a zero if I could.

The script is horrible. The scenes make no sense. The relationships are completely unbelievable. Ruby Rose's acting is poor.

The gaming events should be intense, but they just put you to sleep.

It was utter cringe.