Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3222 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-11-03
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The third of a series of four planned Futurama spin-off TV movies, Bender’s Game follows Bender’s Big Score and Beast With A Billion Backs, and comfortably sits alongside them. It’s good, and it’s sometimes very funny, but is unlikely still to be regarded as vintage Futurama.

The plot of Bender’s Game takes the regulars on a mission that soon sees them in a strange land, which bears a striking resemblance to something out of Dungeons and Dragons or Lord of the Rings. This isn’t, as you’d expect, the safest place to be, and thus the scene is set for lots of genre gags that are, at their finest, hard to resist.

On the downside, the pacing is a little off this time round, and it takes Bender’s Game some time to hit its stride. The quest part of the movie doesn’t kick into until well over half the running time is up, and while there’s real ambition in the narrative, it does demand some patience.

But still, even if this isn’t top notch Futurama, it still packs in plenty of belly laughs, and squeezes more entertainment into 84 minutes than many movies get close to in two hours. You still yearn for the tightness of the TV show format, but the quality of the writing just about drags Bender’s Game through, leaving us thirsting for the fourth, and potentially final, movie. --Jon Foster

Synopsis
As a result of soaring fuel prices, the Planet Express team set off on a risky mission to gain access to a dark-matter mine and recover spaceship fuel. However, under the mine lies a bizarre DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS style land. The crew encounter numerous enemies in the medieval realm and a drunken knight who happens to look quite a lot like Bender.

Customer Reviews

Don't listen to the bad reviews - this is the BEST Futurama film!!
After reading the mixed reviews on here, I wasn't expecting all that much from this latest Futurama movie (why is it that we're always more liable to believe the bad reviews than the good?!). I enjoyed Bender's Big Score but was mildly disappointed by The Beast with a Billion Backs...so was a little concerned that this would be another disappointment. How wrong I was! People can moan all they like, but the bottom line is that this is definitely the most entertaining and FUNNIEST Futurama film yet. I laughed more at this than the first two put together. It's a gag a minute with some delicious parodies of Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons-type fantasy worlds. This one has definite potential for re-watching and, unlike the Beast with a Billion Backs, I look forward to watching it again and again. Lots of hilarity, particularly from our friend Zoidberg and Mom, who is one of my favourite Futurama characters! Loved it!!

A big improvement on previous releases
Bender's Game just goes to show that there is plenty of life in the Futurama series yet. After the disappointing 'Beast with a Billion Backs' this restored my faith in the show; cast and production team are all at the top of their respective games and the pastiche of the Lord of the Rings series is side-splittingly funny. Get this if you can and don't bother with 'Beast' unless you are a completist.

Still heading downhill...
The first 4 seasons of Futurama are masterpieces, with originality, plently of wit with a dash of adult humour, good to amazing storylines and most importantly structure. Bender's Game is a far cry from the old Matt Groening magic to put it politely. Infact I couldn't be bothered to watch the last 20 minutes and I couldn't tell you what happened in beginning as it was that unmemorable. Bender's Big Score was decent enough thanks to its classic Futurama plot but since then it all seems to have gone downhill, which is a real shame.