I'm from a generation that grew up on Super Mario and Sonic, and I usually chuckle and dismiss cinematic use of videogames as misleading or flat-out offensive to even the average person who's more familiar with Tetris than anything like Halo or God of War. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a "hardcore" gamer, in fact I barely play them at all anymore. There's more to videogames than bang-bang-kaboom gameplay and CGI boobs, contrary to what lots of critics and people on the street would lead you to believe. Three movies I saw during SXSW this year made not just respectful, but organic use of videogames in their narratives, Reign Over Me, Eagle vs. Shark (review forthcoming), and TMNT (in a roundabout way), and I can't tell you how distracting it would have been if they'd gotten it wrong in execution.
Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has written up a fantastic piece on the implementation of Sony's Shadow of the Colossus in Reign Over Me. Sandler's Charlie character plays and replays a game where one guy has to go from level to level climbing giant colossi and bring them down. Videogames and symbolism...go figure. The moment I spotted the game in the movie, I thought, "this is the most appropriate choice they could've made".
Eagle vs. Shark uses a fictionalized game called Fight Man that strongly resembles the first Mortal Kombat and it works perfectly as a believable game. Again, more on that in the pending review.
TMNT's "use" of videogames is more in its kinetic style. In one of the most effective meshings of the two, you get comic book pacing/storytelling/storyboarding mixed with camera angles and dynamics you could only do with the free-moving "in-game camera". Director Kevin Munroe's experience as a game programmer/designer with game production house of the gods Shiny Entertainment makes perfect sense after seeing the movie. Munroe apparently worked there during the heyday of Earthworm Jim and also was a part of designing a little-remembered personal favorite game of mine, Wild 9...but I digress. TMNT plays like the greatest game cutscene ever, and after reading this TV Guide article, now I know where this "unknown" guy came from: he's one of my favorite game designers moonlighting.
Games and movies don't have to be a bad thing, folks.